Stalin announces assured pension scheme for govt employees in an election year

Chennai: Fulfilling a two-decade-old demand of government employees and teachers, a key vote bank, in an election year, the DMK dispensation on Saturday unveiled the Tamil Nadu Assured Pension Scheme (TAPS), which will provide benefits equivalent to the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), discontinued in 2003.

Doing a fine balancing act given the state’s financial constraints, the new scheme assures 50 per cent of the last drawn salary by a government employee as pension, retains the contributory component, promises Dearness Allowance (DA) hike every six months, and grants gratuity up to Rs 25 lakh.

The announcement comes at a time when the Tamil Nadu government is under criticism from several quarters over its increasing debt, which currently stands at Rs 9.21 lakh crore. The government formulated the new scheme after months of study by senior bureaucrats who submitted a detailed report last week.

To implement the new scheme, the state government will make a one-time additional contribution of Rs 13,000 crore to the pension fund and contribute around Rs 11,000 crore annually – this amount is likely to increase every year with salary revisions. However, sources said the government has minimised the burden to the exchequer through TNAPS instead of reviving the OPS, which could have placed “severe strain” on finances.

“The Dravidian Model government has fulfilled a 20-year-old demand through the TNAPS. The DMK government has once again proven that it always stands by its words and fulfills promises made to people who trusted and voted for us,” Chief Minister M K Stalin said in a statement.

Through this, the DMK has not merely reached out to government employees and teachers but has also defused a brewing confrontation with the Joint Action Council of Tamil Nadu Teachers Organisations and Government Employees Organisation (JACTO-GEO) threatening an indefinite strike from January 6.

The protest has now been withdrawn, even as conservancy workers and nurses are on the streets demanding regularisation of service. The protests were billed by the opposition parties as visible signs of anti-incumbency against the DMK government.

Bringing back the OPS, which many say is a huge burden on the exchequer, was one of the key promises made by the DMK in its manifesto for the 2021 polls.

In general, the government employees are pro-DMK and have formed the core vote bank of the ruling party for the past several decades. In fact, the employees had come openly against the AIADMK in 2004 Lok Sabha polls after the then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa suspended lakhs of government servants by invoking Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against them for protesting against the government.

Stalin said despite the financial constraints, the state government will bear the complete cost of implementing the scheme to safeguard the welfare of government employees and teachers.

To provide the 50 per cent guaranteed pension, alongside the employees' 10% contribution, the Tamil Nadu government will fully bear the additional funds required for the pension fund and in the event of the pensioner's death, 60 per cent of their pension will be provided as family pension to the family members they have previously nominated.

Other salient features of the schemes include that all employees who retire without completing the qualifying service period for pension will receive a minimum pension and those who joined under the Contributory Pension Scheme and retired without pension during the interim period before the implementation of the new scheme will receive a special pension.