Guwahati: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman vehemently denied transferring funds set aside for the New Pension Plan (NPS) to the state governments for the Old Pension System (OPS) on Monday.
Sitharaman said, “If any state takes a decision for some reason that the funds of NPS can be collected from the Centre, then it will not be available.”
Rajasthan just declared the OPS for its state employees, which should be mentioned. In reality, the Congress-led government in Himachal Pradesh has also announced OPS. Due to the Finance Minister’s most recent announcement, this Old Pension Plan would suffer. According to Sitharaman, the money belongs to the employee and would be given to them at the time of retirement or at any time they need it.
“The collected money will not come into the hands of the state government. When the right time comes, only then will this money be given to the employee,” said Sitharaman.
The Finance Minister further said, “To bring such schemes, the states should raise funds from their own resources and earn from taxes. For free schemes, the states are putting their burden on someone else… it is wrong.”
On being asked about stopping the work of Barmer Petro Chemicals Hub on political grounds, Sitharaman said: “Congress leaders having a heart like stone have no right to accuse the Narendra Modi-led government. The Congress has no right to blame the Modi government as it stopped the water of Narmada to reach the people of Gujarat.”
In India, there are now 7 pension fund managers. Recently, the essential permissions for the creation of a pension fund firm were also granted to Axis Asset Management, TATA Asset Management and Max Life Insurance. Thus, India will have 10 fund managers instead of the current five.