Ministry of Steel has agreed to the proposal received from various CPSEs under its control to introduce the pension scheme with effect from 1stJanuary 2007 in case of executives and 1stJanuary 2012 in case of non-executives or from a subsequent date as decided by the company. The agreement was reached after detailed consultation with representatives of employees unions and officers associations belonging to SAIL, RINL, MSTC, FSNL, MECON and KIOCL.This was announced by the Union Minister of Steel, Chaudhary Birender Singh in New Delhi today.During the meeting with the Minister, the representatives of employees unions and officers associations discussed various issues concerning them, including the introduction of pension scheme as part of the superannuation benefits, provident fund, gratuity andmedical benefit. The Minister informed that medical benefits have already been extended to employees of CPSEs under the Ministry of Steel. NMDC and MOIL have also introduced the pension scheme to its employees as per the Second Pay Revision Committee recommendations.
He said that there has been a long standing demand from the employees of other CPSEs for introduction of pension scheme.Chaudhary Birender Singh said that the pension scheme will benefit over 94,000 serving and 56,000 retired employees of CPSEs under the Ministry of Steel and put an additional financial burden of Rs. 45 crore per month. He said that the pension scheme will be subject to factors like affordability, capacity to pay and sustainability by the CPSEs. Government budgetary support will not be provided to operate these schemes. The rate of contribution will be decided by the respective boards of CPSEs each year depending upon the profit made and employee cost to the company subject to upper ceiling of 30% (Basic Pay plus DA) of superannuation benefits. The actual details of the pension scheme and road map of implementation will be worked out by the management of each CPSEs.