IMPLICATIONS OF NEW FORMULA FOR REVISION OF PENSION OF PRE-2016 PENSIONERS

H. SINGH EXPLAINS IN DETAIL THE IMPLICATIONS OF NEW FORMULA FOR REVISION OF PENSION OF PRE-2016 PENSIONERS IN CCCGPA MEETING;
– CALLS ON ALL PENSIONERS’ ASSOCIATIONS TO JOIN HANDS TO FIGHT AGAINST INJUSTICE

Shri Harchandan Singh, Secretary General RSCWS (Railway Senior Citizens Welfare Society) & Asstt. Secretary General BPS (Bharat Pensioners’ Samaj), while addressing a Meeting of the Managing Committee of CCCGPA, held on May 25, 2017, explained at length the implications of the new Formula – based on Revision of Pension based on Revised Notional Pay from Pay Commission since retirement as if they had been serving employees and fixation of revised Pension / Family Pension of Pre-2016 Pensioners at 50% of the Notional Pay in 7th CPC Pay Matrix – as approved by the Government in place of the Option 1 (bases on number of increments earned in the scale in which retired) as recommended by the 7th Pay Commission (CPC) in its Report, since the Committee set up by the Government had not found it to be feasible to implement Option 1 of 7th CPC due to non-availability of service records of (about 20%) of the Pensioners / Family Pensioners.

He indicated that many of the Pensioners & Family Pensioners would have received a higher Pension if the Option 1 of 7th CPC had been implemented by the Government. It was for this reason that RSCWS and BPS had asked the Committee as well as the Government to implement the Option 1 as it is; and to adopt the new formula proposed by the DOP&PW, as a third option while retaining the Option 1 as well, so as to benefit the left out Pensioners/Family Pensioners who are not benefited by Option 1 due to any reason – including non-availability of service Record or inability of the department concerned to trace out or re-build the records.

He emphasized that it was totally unjust for the Government to deny the benefit of Option 1 to 80% of the Pensioners whose records were available as per a recent survey by DOP&PW and that too merely on account of non- availability of Records of the rest of 20% – even though the same could as well be re-built by the administration as per procedure prescribed in the Rules as per settled law by the Supreme Court for similar cases over the years.

He explained the intricacies of new formula and those of the Option 1 of Seventh Pay Commission which had recommended the following pension formulation for civil employees including CAPF personnel who have retired before 01.01.2016:

“(i) All the Civilian personnel including CAPF who retired prior to 01.01.2016 (date of implementation of Seventh CPC recommendations) shall first be fixed in the Pay Matrix being recommended by this Commission, on the basis of the Pay Band and Grade Pay at which they retired, at the minimum of the corresponding level in the matrix. This amount shall be raised, to arrive at the notional pay of the retiree, by adding the number of increments he/she had earned in that level while in service, at the rate of three percent. Fifty percent of the total amount so arrived at shall be the revised pension.

“(ii) The second calculation to be carried out is as follows. The pension, as had been fixed at the time of implementation of the VI CPC recommendations, shall be multiplied by 2.57 to arrive at an alternate value for the revised pension. (Para 10.1.67 and Para 10.1.68 of the Report).
DOP&PW, vide its OM 38/37/2016-P&PW(A) dated 12-5-2017, had issued the orders – which inter-alia lays down as under:

“4. The aforesaid Committee has submitted its Report and the recommendations made by the Committee have been considered by the Government. Accordingly, it has been decided that the revised pension/family pension w.e.f 01.01.2016 in respect of all Central civil pensioners/family pensioners, including CAPF’s, who retired/died prior to 01.01.2016, may be revised by notionally fixing their pay in the pay matrix recommended by the 7th CPC in the level corresponding to the pay in the pay scale/pay band and grade pay at which they retired/died. This will be done by notional pay fixation under each intervening Pay Commission based on the Formula for revision of pay. While fixing pay on notional basis, the pay fixation formulae approved by the Government and other relevant instructions on the subject in force at the relevant time shall be strictly followed. 50% of the notional pay as on 01.01.2016 shall be the revised pension and 30% of this notional pay shall be the revised family pension w.e.f. 1.1.2016 as per the first Formulation. In the case of family pensioners who were entitled to family pension at enhanced rate, the revised family pension shall be 50% of the notional pay as on 01.01.2016 and shall be payable till the period up to which family pension at enhanced rate is admissible as per rules. The amount of revised pension/family pension so arrived at shall be rounded off to next higher rupee.

“5. It has also been decided that higher of the two Formulations is the pension/family pension already revised in accordance with this Department’s OM No. 38/37/2016-P&PW(A) (ii) dated 04.08.2016 or the revised pension/family pension as worked out in accordance with para 4 above, shall be granted to pre-2016 central civil pensioners as revised pension/family pension w.e.f. 01.01.2016.”
Revised PPOs shall be issued by the PSA (Pension Sanctioning Authority) to the Banks and to the Pensioners after issue of Fitment Tables as per above said orders of DOP&PW.

Shri Harchandan Singh further explained that while the CPC had provided the lowest ever relief of only 14.2% the multiple factor and the minimum pay of Rs.18000 were too low. Besides, the 7th CPC had adopted a discriminatory multiplying formula even as “Index” for determining the minimum Pay at each level varying between 2.57 to 2.81 from Level 1 to Level 18 of the 7th CPC Pay Matrix. This was totally unjustified and resulted in widening the gap between the minimum and maximum wage and Pension under Central Government.

He regretted that the Fitment Tables had also not been issued by the Government/DOP&PW so far thereby further delaying the Revision of Pension of Pre-2016 Pensioners. There were certain other issues also which needed to be resolved including the benefit on account of the upgrading and bunching of Scales at various levels. BPS and RSCWS have urged upon the Government to resolve these issues early. He called upon CCCGPA and its Affiliates to join the ongoing struggle on all these issues.