Letter to FINANCE MINISTER FINANCE MINISTER

 

BHARATIYA MAZDOOR SANGH 

Dattopant Thengadi Bhawan, 27, Deendayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi-110002 

Tel:- 011 23222654 Fax: 91-11-23212648 Website: www.bms.org.in E-mail : bmsdtb@gmail.com

 

 

No. BMS/C-6/236/2020                                                            Date: 07-10-2020 

 

Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman ji,  

Honourable Minister for Finance,  

Govt of India, North Block,  

New Delhi  

 

Respected Madam,  

 

Sub: Pending issues of LIC’s Pensioners  

 

Please Refer to our letters dated 15-6-2019, 02-01-2020 & 19-07-2020 regarding the subject. We are sorry to note that there is no response from your Ministry. Since the said matters are pending for satisfactory resolution for years, we request your personal intervention in the matter. We iterate the issues here below for your ready reference.  

(1) One more option for pension-  

(A) We profusely thank you and your Ministry officials for having granted one more final option to opt for the Pension Scheme of 1995 to LIC employees/Retirees who were PF optees. But the notification allowed the option to only those persons who were in the services of the Corporation as on 28-06-1995. There are less than 100 peculiar cases of Engineers recruited as Direct Recruits in the cadre of Superintending Engineers in 1996 and a few Ex-Servicemen recruited in 1996-1997. Though they were eligible by default to be covered under Pension Rules 1995, option for Pension/PF was insisted to them and by ignorance of the default provisions, they opted for PF. Hence, we request you to allow such unfortunate engineers/employees to opt for pension now. We learn that LIC has referred the matter to the DFS recommending these cases to be considered. We request your kind approval since the number of such persons may be less than 100 in the entire country.  

 

(B) There are certain cases where employees opted for VRS (PF optees) for domestic problems  

(Not going for greener pastures).Though they had completed more than 20 yrs of service (in  some cases more than 30 yrs of service) their retirement was treated as resignation but not as VRS;  

They were denied the pension option due to the outdated provision that they had not completed 55 yrs of their age on the date of such retirement. It is a gross injustice to them, as the outdated provision of LIC of India (Employee's) Staff Regulations, 1960 was invoked in their case to deny VRS to them. We request you to allow such retirees also to opt for pension now.  

(2) Pending issues of pensioners- The following issues are pending for decades.  

(A) Up gradation of Basic Pension with every wage revision of in-service employees- The employees who have retired right from 1995 are getting the same old basic pension fixed at the time of their retirement and they are getting pittance compared to the employees retired after the latest wage revision of 2012 (2017 wage revision is still pending) creating the great discrimination/anomaly. We request for approval of up gradation at par with Central Govt Pensioners on OROP basis or at least on the pattern of RBI pensioners/NABARD pensioners who were granted up gradation in 2019 & 2020 respectively.  

(B) Increased Family Pension- LIC family pensioners are getting roughly about 15% of last basic pay drawn by their deceased spouse, as per the Pension Rules, 1995, which is very meagre amount and it is difficult to sustain the livelihood and medical expenses. RBI family pensioners have been getting 30% of last basic drawn and so is the case with Central Govt pensioners. Now IBA has agreed to grant 30% of last pay drawn as Family Pension without any ceiling subject to approval from your end.  

Hence we appeal to you to upgrade the family pension to at least 30% of last basic pay drawn.  

 

© Computation of Basic Pension- Presently the basic pension is computed as 50% of last 10 months’ average basic pay immediately prior to the date of retirement which has created the greatest anomaly to those who retire during the intervening period of wage revision. Thousands of pensioners are severely affected by this erroneous provision. The said anomaly has been set right in case of Central Govt pensioners during the 5th Pay Commission. Hence we appeal for amending the pension rules as “50% of last 10 months’ average basic pay or 50% of last basic pay at the time of retirement, whichever is favourable to the retiree”. And also request to reopen and revise the basic pension of all the affected pensioners by this anomaly during the previous wage revisions.  

(D) Senior pensioners aged 80 years and above- Senior Central Govt pensioners/Family pensioners aged 80 and above are getting 20% increase in basic pension every five years at 80,85,….. up to 100 age. We request to grant this increased pension to those LIC pensioners/family pensioners who are 80 and above.  

We understand that the LIC management has recommended the improvements requested by us in respect of (B), (C) & (D) above. Accordingly we implore upon your personal intervention in the matter and take necessary action in amending the LIC Pension Rules, 1995.  

We fervently hope for your early action in the matter,  With regards! 

           Yours Sincerely 

  

                                                           (Binay Kumar Sinha)  

General Secretary 

CC: Sh. Girish Chandra Arya, National Secretary, Incharge; Financial Sector