NPS New Rule: The Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) has issued new guidelines to ensure timely payment of pensions to retired National Pension System (NPS) employees. In an office memorandum issued on March 12, 2025, the CPAO reminded the concerned officials that NPS pension cases should be processed in the same manner as OPS (Old Pension Scheme), as directed earlier on December 18, 2023.

Although clear instructions were given earlier, the CPAO found that some pay and accounts offices are still not following the guidelines for pension cases. In particular, where only two PPO booklets should be submitted, some offices are still submitting provisional PPOs with three copies under the old procedure. Due to this, there is an unnecessary delay in processing the pension.

To streamline pension disbursement, the CPAO has appealed to all the concerned officials, Principal CCA, CCA, AG, and Authorized Bank CPPC to strictly follow the guidelines. The aim is to ensure that retired people continue to get their pension on time and without any interruption.

The difference between OPS and NPS has always been a matter of discussion for government employees. Let us tell you that in January 2004, the central government discontinued OPS and replaced it with the National Pension System. However, many states resumed it after trade unions and employee representative bodies started agitations and protests against the New Pension Scheme.

Employee unions are demanding the restoration of OPS.

Now that the Unified Pension Scheme has been announced and is to be implemented from April 1 this year, many employee unions are demanding the Center to restore OPS.

Difference between OPS and NPS

Under OPS, employees used to get a fixed monthly pension after retirement, which was a fixed part of their last salary. In this, the government used to give a full guarantee of pension, which provided financial security to the people after retirement.

On the other hand, NPS is a contribution-based scheme, in which both the employee and the company invest a fixed amount. The amount of pension depends entirely on the performance of the market, that is, the amount received after retirement is not fixed. Because of this, many retired employees are confused about it.

Now CPAO has taken the initiative to make NPS pension processing easier by issuing new guidelines. For a long time, delays in pension approval was causing trouble for retired employees. According to the new rules of CPAO, the pension processing of employees retiring under NPS will be made similar to the process of OPS. This will not only make pension disbursement fast and transparent but will also ensure that NPS beneficiaries continue to receive their pension on time and without any hassle.

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