Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
Preparations for the general budget are going on in full swing. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the general budget in Parliament on February 1. Meanwhile, meetings of industry bodies and labor organizations are being held with the Finance Minister. In this, every organization is putting forward demands from its side. In this series, labor organizations have demanded five times the minimum pension under EPFO in the budget for the financial year 2025-26, immediate formation of the 8th Pay Commission and imposition of higher taxes on extremely rich people (super rich). Demanded on Monday. However, experts say that there is no hope of any decision being taken in the budget on the demand of the Eighth Pay Commission. The government has already made its stand clear on this issue.
Demand to increase income tax exemption limit to Rs 10 lakh
In their traditional pre-Budget meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, trade union leaders demanded increasing the income tax exemption limit to Rs 10 lakh annually, bringing in a social security scheme for temporary workers and restoring the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) for government employees. Also demanded to do. Sitharaman will present the budget for the financial year 2025-26 on February 1. In this sequence, she is holding discussions with representatives of various sectors. Trade Union Co-ordination Center (TUCC) national general secretary SP Tiwari told reporters after the meeting that the government should stop the initiative to privatize public sector undertakings and instead raise funds for ultra-rich people to raise social security funds for unorganized sector workers. But additional two percent tax should be imposed. He demanded to provide social security to the workers working in agriculture sector and also to fix their minimum wages.
Demand to increase minimum pension from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000
Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh’s organizing secretary (Northern Region) Pawan Kumar said that the minimum pension payable under the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995 (EPS-95) should first be increased from Rs 1,000 per month to Rs 5,000 per month and then VDA (Variable Dearness Allowance) should also be added. He also suggested that the income tax exemption limit should be increased to Rs 10 lakh. Along with this, he also demanded from the government to exempt the pension income from tax. Kumar also said that the Eighth Pay Commission should be constituted immediately to revise the pay structure of government employees.
It has been more than 10 years since the Seventh Pay Commission was implemented
Swadesh Dev Roy, national secretary of labor organization Indian Trade Union Center (CITU), supporting the demand, said that more than 10 years have passed since the formation of the Seventh Pay Commission in February 2014. Dev Roy expressed concern over the huge decline in the number of permanent employees in central public sector undertakings. He said that in the 1980s there were 21 lakh permanent employees in these enterprises but in 2023-24 this number would come down to a little more than eight lakh. National Front of Indian Trade Union (NFITU) national president Deepak Jaiswal demanded separate budget allocation for Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) to provide social security benefits to unorganized sector workers. .
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