Punjab Cabinet led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has given approval to the notification for implementing the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) in the state.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the council of ministers held under the leadership of the Chief Minister.
A spokesperson of the Chief Minister's Office said the decision will benefit over 1.75 lakh government employees. About 1.26 lakh employees are already covered under the existing Old Pension Scheme.
The spokesperson said the state government has approved the Old Pension Scheme for its employees currently covered under New Pension Scheme (NPS) fulfilling a long pending demand of employees of the state.
The spokesperson said the scheme is expected to benefit more than 4, 100 employees in the next five years alone.
"The scheme is aimed at safeguarding the future of government employees and recognizing their immense contribution towards the state. In order to ensure that the scheme being introduced is financially sustainable for the exchequer in future also, the state government will be contributing proactively towards creation of a pension corpus which will service the pension in future to the beneficiaries of the scheme," the spokesperson said.
This contribution towards the pension corpus will be Rs 1,000 crore per annum initially and will gradually increase in future.
In addition to this, the current accumulated corpus with NPS is Rs 16,746 crore for which the state government will request Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) to refund this amount for effective utilization at its end.
The cabinet reiterated its firm commitment that the scheme will be made self-sustainable from the resources available with the exchequer adding that under no circumstance, the future of employees' will be jeopardized.
( With inputs from ANI )
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