Sir,
If there is a single demand that commonly figured in the recent protests of the Central and State Government employees, public sector workers in defence production, telecom, railways and banks as well by some workers in the private sector, it is the scrapping of the New Pension Scheme (NPS).
Though NPS was introduced in 2004, why resistance to it is peaking in 2018? Since the NPS covers employees recruited after 1 January 2004 and the age of retirement is 60, most employees are yet to avail the new pension. But a few are retiring now and as per the NPS regime they can withdraw 60 percent of their pension contribution in bulk and out of the remaining 40 percent they get barely Rs.700 and Rs.800 every month as annuity after remitting 10 percent of their salary for 15 years! So the paltriness of the NPS scheme is gradually dawning upon them and so the anger mounts.
The National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR) has announced protest demos against NPS before PM Modi’s residence on 13th and 23rd of March 2019. They even threatened to take a call on halting the trains.
Under the NPS, the Government employees would contribute 10 percent of their salary to the pension fund and the Government would make a matching contribution of 10 percent. But Government would make this matching contribution only in the case of Government employees and not in the private sector.
Under the old pension scheme, the employees would get assured interest from the Government for their accumulating pension fund. But under the NPS, the workers’ savings would be invested in the stock market and their pension amount would be decided by accruals from the share market. Private pension funds would invest their money and make a profit for themselves. One would expect the Central Trade Unions to lobby with the main opposition parties to include restoration of the old pension scheme as a top priority item in their manifestoes. Any new Government can ignore this demand only at its own peril.
B Sivaraman
on e-mail
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