The Chennai EPF [Employees’ Provident Fund] Pensioners’ Welfare Association has written to Union Minister for Labour and Employment Mansukh Mandaviya urging him to use his good offices with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to enhance the minimum monthly pension to ₹9,000 with dearness allowance.
Pointing out that there were about 75 lakh pensioners covered under the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) 1995, the Association, in a letter to Mr. Mandaviya on Saturday, referred to the Prime Minister’s announcement of the Unified Pension Scheme for the government employees covered under the National Pension Scheme (NPS), which is expected to benefit 23 lakh people. However, it regretted that there was no mention of the position regarding the 75 lakh-strong pensioners who came under the EPS 1995.
Citing the data available in the annual report (2022-23) of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), the body, a part of the All India Co-ordination Committee of EPF Pensioners’ Associations, pointed out that even after the implementation of the minimum pension of ₹1,000 per month since September 2014, there were 36,48,314 pensioners who were getting less than ₹1,000. The break-up of pensioners as per the pension range was: 11,73,158 pensioners - ₹1,001 - ₹1,500; 8,68,443 pensioners - ₹1,501 - ₹2,000; 13,71,911 pensioners - ₹2,001 - ₹3,000; 4,70,318 pensioners - ₹3,001 - ₹5,000; and 26,769 pensioners - above ₹5,000.
At the end of the financial year 2022-23, the corpus accumulated under the Pension Fund was around ₹7.8 lakh crore, earning an interest of ₹51,985.82 crore. But the amount of pension disbursed in the year was only ₹14,444.6 crore, the association said, reminding the Minister of a meeting that representatives of the body had with him on August 6 on the matter.
Meanwhile, a Member of Parliament from Gujarat, Shobhanaben M. Barariya, in a letter to the Minister, referred to the issue and recalled that around seven years ago, a request for hiking the pension to ₹7,500 along with DA and medical allowance was “assured consideration”. However, “there has been no progress on this matter to date”, she said, calling upon the Minister to address the “long-standing demand of the senior citizens and take appropriate action to alleviate their financial distress”.
