Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Finance Minister KN Balagopal noted that the state government is planning to revisit the Contributory Pension Scheme pushed under the National Pension System (NPS).

According to Balagopal, the insecurity created by the NPS has caused great concern among government employees. 

"A three-member committee has been constituted to further examine the report of the committee appointed by the government to study its revision," he said.

The government's plan is to review the NPS and implement a Revised Scheme that will provide security to the employees. 

"Necessary action will be taken to get back the share given to the central government. A revised scheme will be formulated to implement an 'Assured' pension system," he added.

Balagopal added that new schemes of similar nature in other states will also be studied and necessary steps will be taken to implement in the state.

Context

The Oommen Chandy government launched the contributory pension Scheme in 2013. During the 2016 Kerala Assembly elections, the LDF promised to eliminate the contributory pension if they won. To keep their word, the LDF government formed a committee in 2018 to reexamine the scheme. The report, however, submitted to the government in 2021, has not been made public. In November 2023, the report was published.
The report recommends increasing the state government’s contribution to the scheme, Death-cum-Retirement Gratuity (DCRG), ex-gratia pension for those having less than ten years of service, etc. 

The committee suggests increasing 10 per cent of employee salary and dearness allowance (DA) to 14 per cent as done by the central government and many other states. However, the government has to wait until 2040 to receive benefits from the scheme. The committee has recommended that government employees whose recruitment was finalised on or before April 1, 2013, but only joined service after the stipulated time, should be given the option of joining the statutory pension scheme.