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Pension for All: The government has started considering including such employees who earn more than Rs 15 thousand under the pension ambit. The Finance Secretary said that discussion is going on to bring such employees also under the ambit of EPS or any other pension scheme.
New Delhi. The government has started brainstorming on increasing the scope of pension under the Employees Provident Fund. Financial Services Department Secretary M Nagaraju has said that there is a need to reconsider the salary limit of Rs 15,000 per month regarding mandatory pension to provide social security to the people. He said it is ‘very bad’ that some people, especially those working in the private sector, who earn more than Rs 15,000 per month, have no pension cover and become dependent on children as they age.
Nagaraju told that those who earn less than Rs 15,000 per month. Registration in the EPF (Employees’ Provident Fund) system is mandatory for them. But, it is not mandatory for those earning more than Rs 15,000. We need to think about this. How can we secure the future of those who earn a little more so that their future is secure and they are not dependent on children in old age?
Benefits of Atal Pension Yojana also
The Finance Secretary, who participated in the program of industry body CII, called this pension disparity an anomaly. He said that this is different from the government’s aim to bring maximum people under pension schemes. Nagaraju said that the number of beneficiaries of the government-backed Atal Pension Scheme has reached 8.3 crore and 48 percent of them are women. The government’s efforts to bring more and more people, including those in the unorganized sector, under social security measures will continue in the future.
There should be enough money in old age
Swaminathan S Iyer, member (life insurance), insurance regulator Irdai, said amid rising consumer demand, it is a challenge to ensure that the younger generation has adequate wealth when they retire after 30 years. He said that with increasing consumerism, what can we do today to ensure that in 30 years, when they (Gen Z) retire, they have enough money. This is the challenge before all of us. Iyer said that more than two-thirds of Indians do not have life insurance.
No insurance coverage in remote areas
He said that the objective of opening the insurance sector to the private sector 25 years ago was to make this sector more prosperous. He regretted that more than 85 percent of the business of insurance companies comes from urban areas and the coverage in remote areas is not adequate. Obviously, the reach of life insurance products, which play a big role in economic security, is still very low in small and marginal areas. For this, along with encouraging people, their access to the products will also have to be made easy.
