Parliament passes pension Bill

In the Rajya Sabha, 115 MPs voted in favour and 25 against the Bill

Despite arch-rivals Left and Trinamool Congress coming together to oppose the long due Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Bill, 2011, it was cleared by the Rajya Sabha on Friday. The Bill that allows 26 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the pension sector has been cleared by both the Houses of Parliament and now needs only the Presidential assent. It was passed with 115 members of Parliament (MPs) voting in favour and 25 against.

Introducing the Bill, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said it had been sent to two standing committees and most of their views had been adopted. In a reply, he said since the Bill had originally been mooted by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime in 2003, he hoped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would be proud to take credit for the scheme.

“Rs 35,000 crore should not be used by an unstatutory authority. All this Bill does is to make a non-statutory authority statutory."

The PFRDA manages Rs 35,000 crore of 5.3 million subscribers.

Replying to BJP’s Piyush Goel’s demand for a “minimum assured pension”, specially for the working classes, he said, “At present, saving for retirement is very low. The New Pension System (NPS) of PFRDA aims to promote saving while you earn, specially for retirement. It is mainly for those who have a regular income.”

Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s Tapan Sen criticised the Bill and the government’s keenness on allowing foreign investment in the sector. Trinamool’s Sukhendu Sekhar Roy condemned the “anti-worker, anti-people and anti-national” Bill. He said it played with the people’s hard-earned savings and exposed it to “foreign crooks.”  

The NPS has been made mandatory for all the central government employees (except the armed forces) who entered service from January 2004. It had been launched for all citizens, including unorganised sector workers, on a voluntary basis, from May, 2009.