This is fantastic news for you if you work in the private sector as well and PF deductions apply to you. The EPS-95 National Agitation Committee has given the labor ministry 15 days' notice to raise the minimum monthly pension from the present level of Rs 1,000 to Rs 7,500, or face a nationwide stir.
Over six crore subscribers and more than 75 lakh pensioner recipients are protected under the Employees’ Pension Scheme of 1995, or EPS-95, which is administered by the retirement fund organization EPFO.
The committee said in a letter sent on Monday to Union Labor Minister Bhupender Yadav that there has been an increase in EPS-95 retiree deaths as a result of extremely low pension amounts and a lack of medical facilities.
If the minimum pension is not increased within 15 days, it warned of a nationwide upheaval, including road and rail shutdown and a nationwide fast. The committee has demanded that the minimum pension be increased from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 7,500 coupled with the declaration of Dearness Allowance on a monthly basis.
It has also asked for the payment of pensions based on actual salaries in accordance with decisions made by the Supreme Court on October 4, 2016, and November 4, 2022.
The government was told to offer the option to contribute to the EPS-95 plan on higher incomes by the highest court earlier in November. The current monthly salary cutoff for pension eligibility is Rs. 15,000.
The committee further demanded that all other retired employees who have not yet been ex post facto members of the plan be given coverage under EPS-95. It claimed that the increase in the minimum pension followed the Koshiyari Committee's 2012–2013 recommendations.
