Discussions are intense among central employees and pensioners across the country regarding the 8th Pay Commission. Meanwhile, the government has once again made its stand clear in the Parliament regarding the Old Pension Scheme (OPS). The government has said that at present there is no proposal under consideration to re-implement the old pension scheme for central government employees. This reply has come at a time when many employee organizations had raised the demand for restoration of OPS with the 8th Pay Commission.
In response to a question asked in Parliament, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said that the Central Government has no proposal to re-implement the old pension scheme. He said that the government has already made several reforms in the National Pension System (NPS) keeping in mind the concerns of the employees and in future also the interests of the employees will be kept in mind.
It has become clear from this reply of the government that at present the Central Government is not considering the withdrawal of OPS. In such a situation, the possibility of including OPS in the recommendations of the 8th Pay Commission is also considered less.
Many employee organizations have been demanding the restoration of the old pension scheme for a long time. He says that in OPS, after retirement, fixed pension was given on the basis of last salary, whereas NPS is a market based system. The returns received in this depend on the performance of the market, due to which the employees remain uncertain about the future income. This is the reason why the debate about OPS is going on in many states and some state governments have decided to implement it.
The government says that many reforms have been made in NPS from time to time to address the concerns of the employees. Apart from this, the Central Government has also announced the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS), the objective of which is to provide more social security to the employees after retirement. The government believes that the new system attempts to maintain a balance between the interests of employees and financial stability.
Although the government has made its stand clear on OPS, the eyes of central employees are now fixed on the recommendations of the 8th Pay Commission. Employees are hopeful that many important changes related to salary, allowances and pension can be seen in the new pay commission. At present it is certain that there has been no change in the policy of the Central Government regarding the restoration of the old pension scheme and the further process will continue under the existing system.
