Amidst the formation of the 8th Central Pay Commission and the round of panel meetings, the hopes of about 65 lakh Central Government Pensioners and family pensioners of the country are at their peak. Major organizations like All India Federation of Pensioners Association (AIFPA), National Council-Joint Consultative Machinery (NC-JCM) and Bharat Pensioners Samaj (BPS) have submitted their official memorandum before the Pay Commission. Given the current economic scenario, inflation and medical expenses, pensioners' associations have advocated a radical change in the pension structure rather than just minor amendments. 1. Basic pension should be fixed at 67%, not 50% of the last pay. In the present system, at the time of retirement, any government employee gets 50 percent of his last basic pay (Last Pay Drawn) as basic pension. Pensioners' organizations have strongly demanded that it should be increased to 67% of the last salary to meet the rising inflation and dignified living of a retired family with minimum 2 members. Along with this, it has been proposed to directly increase the family pension from the current 30% to 50%. 2. Complete restoration and replacement of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) Although the government has announced the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) in place of the National Pension System (NPS), employee and pensioner unions are adamant on 100 percent restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS). Their demand is that employees should get a direct option of old social security pension based on GPF without any contribution deduction. 3. 3.833 fitment factor and ₹69,000 minimum basic pay Pensioners' bodies and staff side unions have demanded implementation of fitment factor of 3.833 for the 8th Pay Commission. In the 7th Pay Commission, the minimum basic salary was fixed at ₹ 18,000. The minimum basic salary should be at least ₹69,000 based on the multiplier of 3.833. If this is accepted, the minimum basic pension may also increase directly from the current ₹9,000 to ₹34,500 to ₹46,230 (on the 67% formula). 4. The recovery period of pension commutation should be reduced from 15 to 11 years. At the time of retirement, employees can take up to 40% of their total pension in lump sum (Commutation), which the government deducts from their monthly pension in installments. Currently this deduction continues for 15 years. The organizations demand that since the employees repay the lump sum advance given by the government and the interest charged on it in about 10.5 to 11 years, the recovery period of commutation should be reduced from 15 years to 11 years. 5. Additional Pension starts from the age of 65 years. At present, pensioners get an additional increase of 20% in the basic pension on completing the age of 80 years. Citing health and age related data, the unions have demanded that a wait of 80 years is too long. Additional pension benefits should start at the rate of 5% from the age of 65 and should be increased gradually every 5 years (e.g. 10% at 70, 15% at 75, 20% at 80). 6. 'One Rank, One Pension' (OROP) for civilian pensioners also A demand has been raised to implement 'One Rank, One Pension' system for central civilian pensioners (Railways, Posts, Defense Civil and other Ministries) on the lines of Armed Forces. Its objective is to ensure that there is no disparity in the basic pension of two employees retiring from the same post and after the same length of service merely because of the difference in the retirement year. 7. Complete exemption of pension and family pension from income tax. Pensioners argue that pension is not a profit or income earned from business, but it is social security received in return for lifetime service to the nation. Therefore, to provide relief to senior citizens and widows, a strong demand has been made to completely abolish the income tax on pension and family pension or to provide special tax exemption of higher limit for the same.
