The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labor has insisted on raising the monthly pension under the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) up to Rs.2000. The committee said that the present amount is very less. In a report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, the committee has asked the labor ministry to persuade the finance ministry to increase the minimum pension. The committee is making efforts for actuarial evaluation of all pension schemes of EPFO. One thousand rupees pension was fixed eight years ago.
According to Parliamentary Committee Chairman Bhartruhari Mahtab, it is necessary for the Ministry of Labor and Employment to pursue the matter with adequate budgetary support from the Finance Ministry as per the recommendation of the high-powered monitoring committee. Apart from this, EPFO should evaluate all its pension schemes through experts so that the monthly member pension can be increased to the appropriate extent. The Ministry of Labor had constituted a high-powered monitoring committee in the year 2018 to evaluate and review the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995. The committee in its report had also recommended that the minimum monthly pension for members/widow/widow pensioners be increased to Rs.2,000. Necessary annual budgetary provision should be made for this.