In what could heighten the political war of words between the Congress-ruled states and the NDA-ruled Centre, the Centre has refused to return to three states the accumulated corpus deposited under the New Pension Scheme (NPS).
“There is no proposal under consideration of Government of India for restoration of old pension scheme,” the Finance Ministry said in an answer in Parliament to a question asked by MP Asaduddin Owaisi.
The Finance Ministry has also said that there is no provision under law to refund the NPS funds to any of the state governments.
The Congress-ruled State Governments of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand have informed the Central Government or the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) about their decision to restart Old Pension Scheme (OPS) for their State Government employees, the reply by the Finance Ministry said.
The newly-sworn in Himachal Pradesh government of the Congress has also promised to implement the NPS in the first cabinet meet. The NPS kicked in from 2004, nearly 18 years ago.
The Finance Ministry said the state government of Punjab on November 18 this year has issued notification regarding implementation of OPS to the government employees presently being covered under NPS.
“The State Governments of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand, have sent proposals to the Central Government or PFRDA to return the accumulated corpus of subscribers under NPS to respective State Governments. No such proposal has been received from the State Government of Punjab,” the Finance Ministry reply said.
The Centre said in response to the proposals of the State Governments of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand, PFRDA has informed the respective State Governments that there is no provision to return the NPS funds.
“There is no provision under the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 2013 read along with PFRDA (Exits and Withdrawals under the National Pension System) Regulations, 2015, and other relevant Regulations, as amended from time to time, vide 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.”
These states have raised demand to the Government to return NPS money to start OPS.
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