In Maharashtra Council, Fadnavis echoes Ahluwalia to counter OPS demand

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday echoed in the Legislative Council former Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalias opposition to the Old Pension Scheme OPSFadnavis was responding to a question raised by Congress member Rajesh Rathod regarding the states plans on the implementation of OPS for teachers and state government employees who joined after 2005Recently economist and exdeputy chairman of the Planning Commission now NITI Aayog Ahluwalia said that going back to implementing OPS was a recipe for financial bankruptcyFadnavis told the Upper House Ahluwalia has said that reverting to OPS amounts to passing the financial burden onto the next governments Salaries wages and pensions already account for 58 per cent of the states annual expenditure and it is increasing to 62 per cent By the next financial year it will be 68 per centUnder Old Pension Scheme OPS employees get a defined pension An employee is entitled to a 50 per cent amount of the last drawn salary as the pension OPS was discontinued by the BJPled NDA government in 2003 with effect from April 1 2004Major retirements will happen in 2030 More than 25 lakh employees will retire by then Some of the pension amount deducted currently from the monthly salaries is invested in the capital market Most of the major countries follow the same process he saidLakhs of teachers and government employees in the state have been demanding the implementation of OPS According to political observers the issue played a role in the recently held legislative council elections where a few BJPsupported candidates lostAlso Read Maharashtra MVApowered Congress ends BJPrsquos 28year reign in KasbaI will hold a meeting with teachers and the finance secretary to find out if there is any viable solution which would be better than the National Pension Scheme which is contributory Fadnavis saidWhen Leader of Opposition in the Council Ambadas Danve asked how states like Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh states are planning to implement OPS Fadnavis said it might not be financially feasible to go with itUnder the new pension scheme employees contribute 10 per cent of their basic salary towards pension while the government contributes 14 per centIf you keep the pension amount in a bank you will get a maximum of 4 per cent interest on it India being a developing country our inflation will remain over 7 per cent It means keeping the amount in a bank is not viableThe deputy CM said High returns are possible only in the capital market There are some rules and regulations for investing a portion of deducted amount from salary into the capital market he said adding In last five years mutual funds have given 11 per cent returns on investments Hence people should not be worried about itThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever