Old Pension Scheme alternative: Discussions on for minimum guaranteed pension and additional income for pensioners, say Finance Ministry sources

 Old Pension Scheme Latest News: Discussions have been going on in the Finance Ministry regarding guaranteed returns in New Pension Scheme, sources from the Ministry confirmed on Tuesday.

The Ministry is planning to launch a minimum guaranteed pension, that will help pensioners to also get some additional income. It is also likely that there will be some benefits made available to the pensioner to increase the contribution by more than 14 per cent .

Sources from the Ministry also confirmed that the contribution will increase without burdening the exchequer and the majority of the investment will be possible in an annuity to increase the pension. Currently around 40 per cent of the total corpus is invested in annuities, through which the pensioners can avail about 35 per cent of the last salary.

However, the sources also said that just being linked to the market does not guarantee it.

Recently, there has been some unrest among the pensioners who have demanded restoration of the old pension scheme.

In a communication to all ministries on Monday, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said, “The undersigned is directed to inform that the National Joint Council of Action under the banner of ‘Joint Forum for Restoration of Old Pension Scheme’, has planned to organise district-level rallies across the country on March 21, exclusively over OPS.”

There are 567,116 beneficiaries above the age of 60 years currently under the National Pension System (NPS), Union Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad informed Parliament in a written reply to a question on Monday.

“This (567,116) includes beneficiaries who are contributing under NPS after the age of 60 years and those who have exited NPS after 60 years and are receiving annuity,” the minister stated during the session at the Parliament.