Union Cabinet revises OROP for defence personnel, family pensioners

The Union Cabinet on Friday approved revision of the 'One Rank One Pension' scheme for defence personnel and family pensioners, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said.

The government on Friday approved revision of pension of armed forces personnel under ‘One Rank One Pension’ (OROP) scheme with retrospective effect from July 1, 2019 and the decision will benefit around 2.5 million pensioners.

The decision taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will result in an additional annual expenditure of Rs 8,450 crore, according to the defence ministry.

It said Rs 23,638 crore will be paid as arrears to the pensioners from July 2019 to June 2022.

“The Union Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved revision of pension of armed forces pensioners/family pensioners under One Rank One Pension (OROP) with effect from July 1, 2019," the ministry said in a statement.

It said the pension of the past pensioners would be re-fixed on the basis of average of minimum and maximum pension of defence forces retirees of calendar year 2018 in the same rank with the same length of service.

The armed forces personnel retired up to June 30, 2019 (excluding those retired pre-maturely (PMR) with effect from July 1, 2014 will be covered under this revision, according to the ministry.