Minister pitches for CPS

Minister pitches for CPS
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Highlights

Finance Minister Eatala Rajender on Wednesday said that the employees who had opted for the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) would get more money at the time of retirement, compared to those under the old pension scheme. 

Hyderabad: Finance Minister Eatala Rajender on Wednesday said that the employees who had opted for the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) would get more money at the time of retirement, compared to those under the old pension scheme.

Replying to a question by Ch Vamshichand Reddy of the Congress on whether the State government would bring in the old pension scheme in place of the CPS during question hour, the Finance Minister informed members that under the old pension scheme a school headmaster, upon retirement, would get Rs 43 lakh, whereas under CPS the same employee would get Rs 53 lakh. He said under this scheme if the beneficiary’s wife was also dead then the immediate successor would get that money.

The Finance Minister said that there were 1.15 lakh employees in the State under the CPS and 2.64 lakh employees under the old pension scheme, to whom the government had been paying Rs 10,800 crore every year. However, he said that certain employees represented for restoration of the old pension scheme.

Vamshichand Reddy pointed out that one Meesala Dharmaiah joined service in 2007 and died in 2015 and his family was getting Rs 650 as monthly pension. The meagre amount was not sufficient to run a family, he said. G Chinna Reddy said that the new CPS had no provision for death and disability gratuity. He wanted the government to adopt a resolution to urge the Centre to cancel the CPS.

When Congress members insisted that the old pension scheme should be introduced and a resolution sent to the Centre on the lines of the governments in Delhi, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, the Finance Minister said that the CPS was brought by the Congress government a decade ago by issuing GO 655 on September 9, 2004. He sought to know why the Congress government implemented the scheme during their party’s tenure if it was not beneficial.

The Minister refuted the allegations that the employees’ money was invested in share market. Rajender said that the Centre created Pension Fund Regulatory Authority to monitor and manage the fund.

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