Can’t give Rs 3,000 pension, says Centre

New Delhi: It is not possible to provide a minimum monthly pension of Rs 3,000 under the Employees’ Pension Scheme 1995, run by the retirement fund body EPFO, the Parliament was informed on Wednesday. “The EPS, 1995 being a contributory scheme, obligations of all payments are met from the assets of the fund.

The higher level of minimum pension of at Rs 3,000 is not possible without compromising the financial viability of the scheme,” labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya said in the Rajya Sabha.

In a separate reply, he said, “providing a minimum pension of Rs3,000 to lakhs of existing pensioners and crores of prospective pensioners has huge financial implications and could jeopardise the existence of the pension fund itself. A report by a Committee on Petitions had recommended increasing the government’s share of contribution to EPS-95 from 1.16 per cent of the basic wages to 8.33 per cent.