NEW DELHI: A Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour, headed by BJP MP Basavaraj Bommai has recommended that the Centre increase the minimum pension of Rs 1,000 paid by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) under its Employees Pension Scheme (EPS).
Since 2014, the Centre has set the minimum pension at Rs 1,000 per month. However, trade unions and associations of pensioners have long been demanding that the minimum pension be increased to at least Rs 7,500 per month.
In its report, the committee reiterated its earlier recommendation. “Considering the manifold increase in the cost of living in 2024 vis-à-vis 2014 and other relevant factors, as put before the Committee by various Stakeholders during their oral evidences held in the year 2023, there is a need to seriously look into the aspect of considering an upward revision of minimum pension of Rs 1,000 /pm under EPS, 1995,” it said.
Notwithstanding the financial implications involved, the Ministry/EPFO need to take up the task with a sense of urgency in the larger interest of the effected pensioners and their family members, observed the committee.
Observing that the third party evaluation of the scheme is being conducted after 30 years of its introduction, the Committee strongly recommended that the exercise be completed within a definite timeframe, preferably by the end of the year 2025 so as to assess effectiveness, sustainability and scope for further improvement, etc. of the scheme.