Government says 1,20,279 persons applied to opt for higher pension till March 9
The Hindu
"Till 09.03.2023, 1,20,279 applications/joint options were applied online at Unified Portal of EPFO by the employees," Minister of State for Labour and Employment Rameswar Teli said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.
As many as 1,20,279 persons have applied online to opt for higher pension under Employees' Pension Scheme 1995 (EPS-95) till March 9, 2023, Parliament was informed on March 16.
In November last year, the Supreme Court had asked the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to give four months time to subscribers as well as pensioners to contribute on their actual salaries towards EPS-95.
Many EPFO subscribers have been contributing on threshold (pensionable salary) of ₹15,000 per month which is less than their actual pay. This option will enable beneficiaries to get higher pension eventually.
"Till 09.03.2023, 1,20,279 applications/joint options were applied online at Unified Portal of EPFO by the employees," Minister of State for Labour and Employment Rameswar Teli said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.
The total number of beneficiaries in accordance with the directions given in the Supreme Court judgement of November 4, 2022 will depend upon the employees exercising the joint option and the number of such employees who are eligible, the Minister explained.
“The quantum of monthly pension payout for such pensioners will depend upon the number of eligible members exercising the option for pension at higher salary,” he added.
As per instructions issued by EPFO in accordance with the apex court's judgment, the joint option for pension on higher wages is available to only those employees where employee's and employer's contributions were on actual salary exceeding the prevalent wage ceiling and who did not exercise joint option under para 11(3) of the pre-amendment EPS-95 (since deleted) while being members of EPS-95 and were members prior to September 1, 2014 and continued to be members on or after September 1, 2014, he stated.
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