SHIMLA: HP Government employees under the New Pension Scheme (NPS) will come under the ambit of Old Pension Scheme (OPS) from April 1.
“The government has decided to stop the government and employee contribution towards NPS from April 1,” said Revenue and Horticulture Minister Jagat Singh Negi after the Cabinet today decided to implement the OPS from April 1.
The government will spend an additional Rs 1,000 crore in 2023-24 on the implementation of the OPS. Apart from the existing 1.36 lakh employees under the NPS, the decision will bring all new recruitments in government service under the OPS. “If any employee wants to continue under NPS, he can give his consent to the government in this regard,” Negi said. Further, the Cabinet decided the employees would be brought under the ambit of General Provident Fund (GPF) after the NPS deductions stop. “The employees under NPS who have retired after May 15, 2003, will be given OPS from prospective date,” said Negi.
The Cabinet also passed a resolution seeking the return of Rs 8,000 crore from the Centre, which has been deposited as NPS contribution till date. “The Finance Department has been directed to frame rules and standard operating procedure (SOP) for the implementation of the decision taken with regard to OPS,” said Negi.
The minister said that the state has chalked out its own formula to implement OPS. Initially, there were talks that the state might adopt the Chhattisgarh formula to implement it. “We have not copied the formula of any other state. We will do it as per our own formula,” said Negi.
The NPS employees feel that the announcement of stopping the NPS deductions has removed a big hurdle in the way of restoring OPS. “Once the NPS deductions are stopped, all NPS employee will be allotted a GPF number,” said an NPS employee association leader. “But we have to wait for the SOP to get the clear picture,” he said.