NEW DELHI, 12 Dec: There is no proposal under consideration of the central government for restoration of the old pension scheme, MoS for Finance Bhagwat Karad informed Parliament on Monday.
Under the old pension scheme, employees get a defined pension. Under this, an employee is entitled for a 50 percent amount of the last drawn salary as pension.
However, the pension amount is contributory under the national pension system, which is in effect from 2004.
In a written reply, Karad said that the state governments of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have informed the central government/Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) about their decision to restart the old pension scheme (OPS) for their employees.
The government of Punjab on 18 November issued a notification regarding implementation of the OPS for the state government employees who are presently being covered under the NPS.
“The state governments of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have sent proposals to the central government/PFRDA to return the accumulated corpus of subscribers under NPS to respective state governments. No such proposal has been received from the state government of Punjab,” he said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
In response to the proposals of these state governments, the PFRDA informed the respective states that “there is no provision under the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 2013, read along with PFRDA (Exits and Withdrawals under the National Pension System) Regulations, 2015, and other relevant regulations,” which are already deposited both in the form of government contribution and employees’ contribution towards NPS, along with accruals, can be refunded and deposited back to the state government.”
Replying to another question, Karad said, “The Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS), launched in May 2020 as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, has benefited 1.19 crore borrowers with guarantee amounting to Rs 3.58 lakh crore as on 30 November, 2022.”
The percentage of non-performing assets of loan accounts under the ECLGS scheme stood at Rs 13,964.58 crore or 3.89 percent of the loan guaranteed.
Under the scheme, 100 percent credit guarantee is extended to the lending institutions for loans extended by them under the scheme to eligible borrowers. The admissible guarantee limit under the scheme has been increased from Rs 4.5 lakh crore to Rs 5 lakh crore, with the additional guarantee cover of Rs 50,000 crore earmarked exclusively for the hospitality and related enterprises, including the civil aviation sector.
Most of the micro, small and medium enterprises borrowers have loans outstanding up to Rs 50 crore, he said.
“For this category of borrowers, the ECLGS scheme was an ‘opt out’ scheme, ie, eligible support was to be provided by the lenders to such category of eligible borrowers, unless the MSME borrowers decided not to avail the support or were ineligible,” he said. (PTI)