Several Members of Parliament have demanded that the facility of part withdrawal or commutation of pension under the Employees Pension Scheme-1995, EPS-95 should be reintroduced.
The issue of restoring facility of commutation of one third of the pension amount was raised during a meeting of the Consultative Committee, attached to the Labour Ministry, held in New Delhi on Tuesday. Earlier under EPS-95, the subscribers of Employee’s Provident Fund Organisation had the facility of part withdrawal from their pension fund account on their retirement. The facility was discontinued under a scheme in October 2008.
The meeting of the committee was chaired by Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya who also briefed members on agenda relating to discussion on EPFO. The MPs also demanded to reintroduce the return of capital facility under the EPS-95. The facility used to permit the pensioners under the scheme to draw lesser pension after retirement for a certain specified periods and get a lump sum amount.
They also said that the minimum pension of Rs 1000 introduced under the scheme should be ensured without considering age as a factor. The MPs also asked to remove monthly wage ceiling of Rs15,000 to become member of the social security schemes run by EPFO and demanded to make these benefits universal. The issue of splitting of wages by the employer was also raised in the meeting.
The employer split wages into many allowances to reduce their provident fund liability. They also demanded that government’s proposal to exempt establishments employing less than 40 from compliance of Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act maybe withdrawn.
