Govt. examining Supreme Court order on employees' pension scheme: Union Minister Rameswar Teli

Minister Teli was replying to a question on whether the government knew about the SC verdict of November 4 on EPF pension scheme and if it could guess the timeline for implementation

Union Minister Rameswar Teli. File Photo | Photo Credit: Manjunath HS

The government on Thursday said it was examining a Supreme Court judgement which upheld the Employees' Pension (Amendment) Scheme, 2014 and allowed the employees to opt for enhanced pension coverage alongside their employers, in four months' time.

"Yes, sir. The directions of the Supreme Court in the judgment are under examination," the Minister of State for Labour & Employment Rameswar Teli said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.

Mr. Teli was replying to a question on whether the government was aware about the Supreme Court verdict of November 4 on EPF pension scheme and if it could guess the timeline for implementation, and instruct the EPFO (Employees Provident Fund Organisation) to take actions, for giving higher pension.

In another written reply, Mr. Teli said the court judgement had legal, financial, actuarial and logistical implications.

The scheme provided for an extension of four months' time for eligible employees to opt for enhanced pension.

The apex court order provided that the employees who were existing EPS-95 members as on September 1, 2014, could contribute up to 8.33% of their actual salaries, as against 8.33% of the pensionable salary capped at ₹15,000 a month, towards the pension.

It had also struck down the requirement in the 2014 amendments, mandating the employer contribution of 1.16% of the salary exceeding ₹15,000 per month.

This would facilitate the subscribers to contribute higher to the scheme and get enhanced benefits, accordingly.

There were more than six crore subscribers of the retirement fund body. A large number of contributing members of the pension scheme would benefit from opting for contribution on wages higher than the threshold of ₹15,000 per month.

The Minster also said the EPFO had a corpus of ₹18,64,136 crore. This amount consisted of ₹11,37,096.72 crore in the Employees' Provident Fund Scheme, 1952; ₹6,89,210.72 crore in the Employees' Pension Scheme, 1995 and ₹37,828.56 crore in the Employees' Deposit-Linked Insurance Scheme, 1976, as on March 31, 2022.