The central government has no proposal under consideration for restoration of the s0-called old pension scheme, the minister of state for finance said on December 12.
The state governments of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand have informed the government about their decision to restart old pension scheme for their employees and have sent proposals to the central government and pension regulator to return the accumulated corpus of subscribers under national pension scheme to the states, minister Bhagwat Karad said in a written response to a lawmaker’s question in the lower house of parliament.
Meanwhile, Punjab has issued notification regarding implementation of OPS to the government employees but no proposal for return of corpus has been received from the state, the minster added.
Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have been informed that there is no provision under which the funds, which are already deposited both in the form of government contribution and employees' contribution towards NPS, along with accruals, can be refunded and deposited back to the state government, minister Karad said.
Under the old pension scheme, government employees used to get a guaranteed pension. In the national pension scheme, contributions are funneled into securities and there is no guaranteed return.
A return to the old pension scheme, if it happens, will add to the governments' fiscal burdens.