A REPORTER
ITANAGAR: The Arunachal Pradesh state unit of the National People's Party (NPP) has appealed to the State Government to implement the National Pension Scheme (NPS) by incorporating family pension or else scrap the NPS and reintroduce the old pension system.
Addressing the media at the Press Club here on Saturday, NPP state general secretary Paknga Bage stated that the NPS has many demerits and it has no benefit for Government employees. However, somehow the State Government had signed the MoU and passed an order to implement the NPS in the State with retrospective effect from 2008.
Bage informed that NPS is a Defined Contribution Pension System (DCPS) where the government employees have to contribute 10% of their total salary and an equal amount will be contributed by the State Government. The amount so contributed will be kept under Tier-I or Tier-II accounts.
Moreover, the withdrawal system in the NPS is not that of GPF system, rather is complicated and withdrawal is limited to 25% of his/her contributed amount.
"The main setback in the NPS is that in case of premature death of all categories of Government employees, his/her nominee is not covered under any financial benefit, unlike the old family pension," he said.
He added that there is no benefit on premature exit on medical or domestic grounds, no provision such as volunteer retirement benefit, as provided in the old pension system.
"Moreover, during death/pre-exit cases, the withdrawal limit is fixed at 20% of the contributed amount and the rest 80 % amount is not allowed to be withdrawn," he added.
He also claimed that for Group C & D employees, the 10% contribution amount under Tier-I and Tier-II on his/her attaining the superannuation of service will be very inadequate to support his/ her family during old age.
Bage further suggested that the NPS should be adopted in the State with additional State policy. He suggested that in case of death of the employee or premature exit on medical grounds before 15 years of his/her service tenure, then his/her or nominee should be covered under the old family pension system so that the deceased's family can be extended minimum economical support.
"If the Government fails to implement the NPS with certain modifications or additional policy, the State Government should completely scrap the NPS in the State and implement the old pension system," he said.
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