New Delhi, Aug 27: Accusing Congress of spreading misinformation, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said the newly launched UPS is a new pension scheme and not a rollback of NPS.
“It is not a rollback… it is different from OPS (Old Pension Scheme) and NPS (National Pension System). It is clearly a new package,” she said, adding, the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) is better and will satisfy most government employees.
UPS is tailored in such a fashion that every calculation fits and even the government is not burdened too much, she said.
She expressed hope that most of the states would adopt UPS “as it has a lot of benefits for employees”.
On Congress' allegation that the government has taken a U-turn on the pension scheme, she said, the government has improved the pension scheme which is not a U-turn.
Senior Congress leaders have said going back on OPS would be foolhardy because of obvious challenges it posed.
Unfortunately, she said, “these days Congress makes comments without doing comprehensive study, which was not the case earlier. They have just become a nara-driven or sloganeering-driven party.”
Defending past decisions like restoration of indexation benefits as part of long-term capital gains tax (LTCG), she said, it was not a rollback but tweaking.
The just-announced Unified Pension Scheme for 23 lakh central government employees will be available only for those who are currently subscribers of the NPS.
The new scheme guarantees employees 50 per cent of their average basic pay over the last 12 months before retirement as a pension for a minimum qualifying service of 25 years against a market-returns linked payout under the NPS.
According to the scheme approved by the Union Cabinet on Saturday, the pension will be proportionate for a lesser service period of up to a minimum of 10 years. Also, assured pension of Rs 10,000 per month on superannuation after a minimum of 10 years of service.
The scheme has been brought out to address the concerns of government employees over NPS, which came into effect from January 1, 2004.
