PENSION BILL OR PENSIONLESS BILL?
Finally the ruling Congress party and the main opposition Party BJP
joined together and passed the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development
Authority (PFRDA) Bill in the Parliament. In the year 1982 on 17th December,
the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court consisting of Justice (s)
Y. B. Chandrachud, V. D. Tulzapurkar, O. Chinnappa Reddy. D. A. Desai
and Bahrul Islam delivered the historic judgment on pension in the D. S.
Nakara case, which declared as follows:
“(i) Pension is neither a bounty nor a matter of grace depending upon
the sweet will of the employer and it is Fundamental right (ii) Pension
is not an ex-gratia payment, but it is payment for past service rendered
(iii) It is a social welfare measure rendering socio-economic justice
to those who in the heyday of their life ceaselessly toiled for the
employer on an assurance that in their old age they would not be left in
lurch.”
After 30 years, the bill passed by Parliament categorically proclaims
that the Contributory Pension Scheme introduced w.e.f 01.01.2004 will
not give any guarantee for a minimum pension of 50% of the pay drawn at
the time of retirement of the employee. Nor does it provide for the
protection of the family members in the form of family pension in the
event of death. New pension is going to make the social security
uncertain and dependent on market forces. Government compulsorily
imposed the scheme on one section of the employees in a most
discriminatory manner, inspite of the fact that such scheme had been a
failure in many countries including Chile, U K and even in USA. In USA
the entire pension wealth (fund) has been wiped out leaving no pension
due to the economic recession and share market crash. In Argentine the
contributory scheme which was introduced at the instance of IMF was
replaced with the defined benefit pension scheme. In majority of the
countries “pay as you go” is the system of pension.
Government introduced the contributory pension scheme on the specious
plea that the out flow on pension had been increasing year by year and
is likely to cross the wage bill. In fact, by making the pension
contributory, the Government expenditure on this score is not going to
get reduced for the next three decades because of the reason that as per
the new pension scheme, the Government is to contribute the same amount
to the pension fund of each employee coupled with the stipulation that
for the existing Central Government Employees who were in service prior
to 01.01.2004 Government is duty bound to make payment of statutory
pension. The Contribution collected from the employees who are recruited
after 01.01.2004 is to be managed by mutual fund operators for
investment in stock market and thus it is the vagaries of the stock
market which will determine the quantum of pension or in other words
annuity which would be cost-indexed and market-oriented.
The decision of the Government to allow FDI in pension fund operations
has made the real intention of the PFRDA bill crystal clear. It is now
clear that the decision behind the contributory pension scheme is the
pressure imposed by imperialist powers and corporate houses and more
specifically IMF.
NFPE and Confederation has opposed the new Pension Scheme and the PFRDA
Bill from the very beginning and organized series of agitational
programmes against it demanding withdrawal of the scheme and the PFRDA
bill. We shall continue our opposition and struggle and demand for
reversion of the scheme. Let us intensify our struggle against the
neo-liberal economic policies of the Government jointly with all those
forces which supported our cause inside the Parliament and outside. Let
us identify who are our real friends and foes.
Source: www.confederationhq.blogspot.