Labour Minister Shri Tomar announces launch of Minimum Pension Scheme across 120 locations in India
37 Union Ministers to felicitate pensioners on September 30
The Union Minister of Labour & Employment, Steel and Mines, Shri
Narendra Singh Tomar announced the launch of a guaranteed minimum
pension of Rs 1000 per month under Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995.
Speaking to journalists at a press conference in here today, he said,
the Union Government has decided to organize functions in every office
of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation spread across 120 locations
in the country. It has also been decided that in 37 locations, Union
Ministers will preside over the functions and felicitate the pensioners
whose pension is getting increased.
Shri Tomar stated that this is being done to interact with the
pensioners and to ensure that no eligible person is left out. He
expressed confidence that this interaction will help the EPFO to design
its pension re-engineering process in a better way. The Secretary,
Ministry of Labour and Employment, Smt Gauri Kumar and Central PF
Commissioner Shri K.K. Jalan were also present on the occasion.
The Minister said that the long-pending demand for increase in the
pension will soon see the light of day. At present, a large number of
pensioners are getting only paltry amounts as pension under the scheme.
Nearly two-thirds of the pensioners are in receipt of pension of less
than 1000 rupees. Thus, this move would benefit approximately 32 lakh
out of a total of 49 lakh pensioners who are getting below Rs 1000 as
pension, he added.
It is relevant to note that the wage ceiling for coverage under the
three schemes of EPFO i.e. Employees Provident Fund Scheme, Employees’
Pension Scheme and Employees’ Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme (EDLI) has
also been increased from monthly Rs 6500 to Rs 15000. This increased
wage ceiling is expected to bring in an additional 50 lakh employees
under the ambit of these social security programmes. The increased wage
ceiling will also result into higher benefit under the EDLI from a
maximum of Rs.1,30,000 to a maximum of Rs 3,60,000.
In the recent past EPFO has taken a series of measures to bring in
greater transparency and efficiency in its functioning. These include
the facility for online registration of establishments (OLRE), Online
Transfer Claim Portal (OTCP), e-passbook and electronic payment of PF
and Pension benefits through NEFT (National Electronic Fund Transfer)
and CBS (Core Banking Solution).
PIB
