Shashi Tharoor MP has taken up the cause of Employees Provident Fund pensioners and made it clear that he will bring the shabby treatment meted out to the lot to the attention of the UPA Government at the Centre immediately. The MP said that he would also bring the issue to the notice of the ongoing session of Parliament, in the form of a submission.
Many EPF pensioners have been meeting Tharoor seeking his support for using his interventional capacity to sanction improved benefits under the Employees Provident Fund pension scheme. Convinced of their plight, he assured them of his support to ensure a better deal.
In a statement, Tharoor said that there are around 35 lakh EPF pensioners in the country, who are drawing a paltry ` 550 as monthly minimum pension from the fund. “The pension should be raised to a minimum of ` 5,000. For those who had toiled their employable years of life in the productive sectors, the prevailing minimum EPF pension is inadequate to meet the financial needs of a pensioner in the fag end of life,’’ he felt.
The MP also observed that EPF pensioners should be given the benefit of Variation in Dearness Allowance, to match the rising cost of living. The corpus fund of the EPF should be enlarged and sectors like IT should be brought under the scheme, Tharoor demanded. The entire EPF scheme should be subjected to a total review, he suggested.