Unified Pension Scheme: The Unified Pension Scheme for Central Government Employees will come into effect from April 1, 2025, but it can be launched earlier. The government may issue a notification regarding the Unified Pension Scheme on October 15, 2024 during the festive season. The new pension scheme is one of the major priorities of the government and it is being finalized, which will benefit lakhs of central employees.
Round of meetings regarding Unified Pension Scheme
According to the report of Economic Times, Cabinet Secretary TV Somanathan is continuously holding meetings with various ministries and departments regarding the Unified Pension Scheme so that the new pension scheme can be implemented easily. While being the Finance Secretary, TV Somanathan was the chairman of the committee which was given the responsibility of reviewing the National Pension Scheme. Based on the recommendations of the Somanathan Committee, the government has decided to introduce the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS).
What is the specialty of UPS
In the Unified Pension Scheme, the average of the basic salary + DA of the 12 months before the retirement of the central employees will be given as assured pension. In the Unified Pension Scheme, employees will have to contribute to the Pension Fund. Employees will have to give 10 percent of their basic pay and DA in UPS to the pension fund as they have been doing in NPS.
The government will contribute 18.5 percent from its side to the pension fund for the employee, which was 14 percent in NPS. That is, the government is going to increase its contribution to UPS. In the Unified Pension Scheme, government employees will be entitled to get assured pension under the fixed formula only after at least 25 years of service. 23 lakh government employees will benefit from this new pension scheme and the big feature of this pension scheme is that employees will get assured pension on retirement, which was not there in NPS.
The cabinet had approved UPS
In the cabinet meeting held on August 24, 2024 under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi , it was decided to launch a Unified Pension Scheme for government employees by approving the New Pension Scheme.
