On 5th April, the Congress party released its manifesto ‘Nyay Patra’ for the coming Lok Sabha elections. After strongly campaigning for reverting to Old Pension Scheme (OPS) in state assembly elections, the party has now backtracked and made no mention of OPS in its manifesto for the general elections.
When asked by the media about why the OPS has been missing from the party manifesto, Congress leader P Chidambaram said, “It’s not missing as such, it is very much in our minds. The party has not included the issue in the manifesto as the government has recently formed a committee to look into the provisions of the New Pension Scheme (NPS). We will review the situation after the committee outcome and move ahead according to that.”
Congress won in Himachal on the promise of implementing OPS, but now they have sidelined it from their 2024 manifesto. They have formed a committee to review OPS.
— BALA (@erbmjha) April 5, 2024
The clowns have finally realized that OPS is a burden and fiscally unsustainable, after bankrupting HP! pic.twitter.com/kLJIXgvXet
While Congress is giving the excuse of the government’s committee on NPS, it is being said that the party leaders have realised that OPS is more of a burden on the government and is financially unsustainable.
कांग्रेस के मेनिफेस्टो में ओपीएस को ना शामिल किए जाने पर आजतक ने उठाया सवाल तो सुनिए क्या बोले कांग्रेस नेता और पूर्व केंद्रीय मंत्री @PChidambaram_IN #Congress #CongressManifesto #OPS #ReporterDiary (@mausamii2u) pic.twitter.com/Q4pokTMCyW
— AajTak (@aajtak) April 5, 2024
In an effort to sway voters in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh, the Congress promoted the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) as a key promise. Despite providing enhanced pensions to government employees, the party was defeated in these states. Notably, the party’s sole victory in Telangana came without this poll promise.
The Congress party reintroduced the OPS in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan after it won in 2018, as well as in Himachal Pradesh last year, at the very first Cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu.
Congress’s decision to restore the Old Pension Scheme has taken a heavy toll on the state’s economy. In November last year, it was reported that the state government had to raise a loan of Rs 800 crore to pay salaries, dearness allowances and pensions of government employees. A report says that there are over 1.36 lakh beneficiaries of the OPS in Himachal Pradesh. In this Congress-ruled state, the debt burden has crossed Rs 80,000 crore.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report for the fiscal year 2022-23 said that the state government raised around Rs 13,055 crore as loan, taking the state’s total debt to Rs 86, 589 crore in 2022-23.
Interestingly, despite seeing the Old Pension Scheme as a vote-catching poll promise, Congress during its plenary session in Raipur last year had also ignored the government-funded scheme in the economic resolution it passed.
“Well, we felt the issue of OPS should be left to the state governments and the state Congress units and, therefore, there was no need to specifically mention the issue in the plenary resolutions which are more about national policies,” Congress said back then.
Notably, the OPS provides a set pension equivalent to 50% of a government employee’s last pay without needing any contribution from them. In contrast, the NPS, implemented in 2004 by the then-BJP government of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, requires employees to contribute 10% of their base salary, with the government providing the remaining 14%. The future pension amount is determined by the market returns of the funds that were invested.
It is obvious that many of those in government service will want the OPS to return because they receive guaranteed money on a monthly basis for the rest of their lives. Although reverting to OPS may win the support of government employees, it is an unwise move for the states since they may go bankrupt as it will take a heavy toll on the state exchequer.
