Karnataka - Bangalore   

Conditional approval given to pension Bill

Staff Reporter

`System is designed to cover those excluded by current scheme'

MAKING A POINT: Chairman PFRDA D. Swarup and Chairperson, CIRE, IIM-B, R. Vaidyanathan, at a conference on "India Pensions: Challenges Ahead" in Bangalore. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE: A pension Bill to cover self-employed professionals and unorganised workers is pending before Parliament.

Chairman of Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) D. Swarup said here on Friday during a conference on "India pensions: challenges ahead" that it had been given conditional approval by Parliament's Standing Committee on Finance.

The voluntary nature of the system, poor financial literacy, and the attitude of the households towards financial savings and risk and retirement planning posed a challenge in achieving optimum coverage of the new system, he said. The new system had been designed to include 300 million people not covered by the existing pension scheme.

The system came into limited operation by a notification in December 2003. As many as 16 States had implemented the new system, pending parliamentary approval, he said.

Implementation

Secretary to Finance Department, Karnataka, D.N. Narasimha Raju, said the State was implementing it for those appointed after April 2006.

About one lakh Union Government employees appointed post-January 2004 had been covered under the new pension system, again pending approval of Parliament.

The employees contributed 10 per cent of their salary and dearness allowance with a matching contribution from the Government, he said.

Regulatory authority

Once the Bill was approved, the PFRDA would become a regulatory authority to manage the new scheme, he said.

Mr. Swarup, however, expressed reservations over the efficacy of the new scheme.

"Lack of any other incentive will make it hard to wean them from the traditional modes of investment such as in property, gold and post office schemes," he said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

31 soldiers remembered; cash given to families
Project for teaching hospitals launched
Centre urged to share cost of developing backward taluks
Mashelkar deplores funds crunch
BMRCL to set up panel to decide the price of land to be acquired
Cabinet orders judicial probe into `lapses' in mining sector
`Farm produce marketing Act not amended'
People of Byatarayanapura CMC limits stage protest
Youth throws chilli powder at two persons, makes off with their cellphones
`CSIR's goal is good quality at low cost'
KPCL plans six projects for 4,000 MW more
All gram panchayats to have libraries
Of emotional quotient and balanced life
Some like it in print, many prefer it on the silver screen
Conditional approval given to pension Bill
BMP announces launch of `Suvarna Bangalore' project
Property tax system to be integrated with GIS
Carrying on a conservation campaign on motorcycles
Poojary for dismissing Government
Names added to voters' list after last date: doctors
Man who tried to snatch cash bag caught
14,000 people attend chikungunya camps
Facility for glaucoma treatment opened
Around the City
In Bangalore Today
Security guards have become easy targets for attackers

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu