EPFO: The Central Government recently announced the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS), which assures a guaranteed minimum pension for central government employees. Since then, private sector employees covered under the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) have also started raising their demand for an increased monthly pension under the Employee’s Pension Scheme (EPS).
According to media reports, in this regard, the Chennai EPF Pensioners’ Welfare Association wrote a letter to Union Minister for Labour and Employment Mansukh Mandaviya. The association asked the Minister to raise the minimum monthly pension to Rs 9,000 with dearness allowance, said media reports.
Association also remarked that Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) covers around 75 lakh pensioners. The association said that the government has overlooked in the newly announced UPS that will benefit 23 lakh government employees.
Moreover, in July, pensioners body EPS-95 National Agitation Committee held a protest in Delhi for a minimum monthly pension of Rs 7,500. Notably, Maharashtra-based EPS-95 National Agitation Committee, represents around 78 lakh pensioners and 7.5 crore working employees.
EPFO: Minimum Pension Fixed Under EPS95?
Central government, in September 2014, announced a minimum pension of Rs 1,000 per month for pensioners covered under Employee’s Pension Scheme (EPS), 1995.
Moreover, the labour ministry last year sent proposed to double the pension to Rs 2,000 per month under the EPS-95 to the finance ministry. However, this proposal remains unapproved by the finance ministry.
Under the EPS scheme, pension is calculated with the following formula: (average basic salary of last 60 months multiplied by the years in service) divided by 70.
Furthermore, media reports suggest that the labour ministry has also proposed to raise the wage ceiling from Rs 15,000 to Rs 21,000 for calculating employees’ provident fund contributions. As of now, the government has capped the wage ceiling for calculating the EPS pension at Rs 15,000.
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