Members of Employment Pension Scheme-95 (EPS-95), now onwards, will get a minimum monthly pension of Rs 1,000. The announcement, made in the Union Budget, will benefit 28 lakh pensioners who are currently getting lesser amount.
The scheme is run by Employment Provident Fund Organization (EPFO). Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also announced that wage ceiling covering organised sector workers under schemes run by EPFO has been raised to Rs 15,000 per month from the existing Rs 6,500. It was also a major demand of central trade unions.
Labour Minister Narendra Singh Tomar had assured implementation of the decision taken by the earlier government in his meeting with central trade unions last month.
“The government is fully committed to the social security and welfare of employees serving in the organised sector. The government is notifying the minimum pension of Rs 1,000 per month to all subscriber members of EPS-95 scheme and has made an initial provision of Rs 250 crore in the current financial year to meet the expenditure,” Jaitley said.
“Further, increase in mandatory wage ceiling of subscription to EPS-95 from Rs 6,500 to Rs 15,000 has been made and a provision of Rs 250 crore has been provided in the current budget,” he said.
This will bring EPFO benefits to 50 lakh more workers.
Jaitley said that for the convenience of the subscribers, the EPFO will launch the “Uniform Account Number” (UAN) Service to facilitate portability of Provident Fund accounts.
The EPFO has planned to launch the UAN for more than 5 crore subscribers by October this year. Subscribers would not have to apply for PF account transfer claim on changing jobs.