PENSION BILL OR PENSIONLESS
BILL?
Finally the ruling Congress party and
the main opposition Party BJP joined together and passed the Pension Fund and
Regulatory Authority Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA)
Bill in the Parliament. In the year 1982 on 17th December, the
Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court consisting of Justice (s) Y. B.
Chandrachud, V. D. Tulzapurkar, O. Chinnappa Reddy. D. A. Desai and Bahrul Islam
deliverd the historic judgment on pension in the D. S. Nakara case, which
declared as follows:
“(i) Pension is neither a bounty nor a
matter of grace depending upon the sweet will of the employer and it is
Fundamental right (ii) Pension is not an ex-gratia payment, but it is payment
for past service rendered (iii) It is a social welfare measure rendering
socio-economic justice to those who in the heyday of their life ceaselessly
toiled for the employer on an assurance that in their old age they would not be
left in lurch.”
After 30 years, the bill passed by
Parliament categorically proclaims that the Contributory Pension Scheme
introduced w.e.f 01.01.2004 will not give any guarantee for a minimum pension of
50% of the pay drawn at the time of retirement of the employee. Nor does it
provide for the protection of the family members in the form of family pension
in the event of death. New pension is going to make the social security
uncertain and dependent on market forces. Government compulsorily imposed the
scheme on one section of the employees in a most discriminatory manner, inspite
of the fact that such scheme had been a failure in many countries including
Chile, U K and even in USA. In USA the entire pension wealth (fund) has been
wiped out leaving no pension due to the economic recession and share market
crash. In Argentine the contributory scheme which was introduced at the instance
of IMF was replaced with the defined benefit pension scheme. In majority of the
countries “pay as you go” is the system of pension.
Government introduced the contributory
pension scheme on the specious plea that the out flow on pension had been
increasing year by year and is likely to cross the wage bill. In fact, by making
the pension contributory, the Government expenditure on this score is not going
to get reduced for the next three decades because of the reason that as per the
new pension scheme, the Government is to contribute the same amount to the
pension fund of each employee coupled with the stipulation that for the existing
Central Government Employees who were in service prior to 01.01.2004 Government
is duty bound to make payment of statutory pension. The Contribution collected
from the employees who are recruited after 01.01.2004 is to be managed by mutual
fund operators for investment in stock market and thus it is the vagaries of the
stock market which will determine the quantum of pension or in other words
annuity which would be cost-indexed and market-oriented.
The decision of the Government to allow
FDI in pension fund operations has made the real intention of the PFRDA bill
crystal clear. It is now clear that the decision behind the contributory pension
scheme is the pressure imposed by imperialist powers and corporate houses and
more specifically IMF.
NFPE and Confederation has opposed the
new Pension Scheme and the PFRDA Bill from the very beginning and organized
series of agitational programmes against it demanding withdrawal of the scheme
and the PFRDA bill. We shall continue our opposition and struggle and demand for
reversion of the scheme. Let us intensify our struggle against the neo-liberal
economic policies of the Government jointly with all those forces which
supported our cause inside the Parliament and outside. Let us identify who are
our real friends and foes
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