File photo of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley
New Delhi, August 31
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today
virtually ruled out the annual revision of pension as demanded by agitating
ex-servicemen under ‘one rank, one pension’, but said the government will
safeguard interests of soldiers retiring at an early age through higher
pensions.
Annul revision in pensions do not
happen anywhere in the world, he said.
Jaitley said the government was
committed to OROP but the “only difficulty” is the “arithmetical translation”.
“I have my own formula on what OROP
means. Somebody else may have their own formula on OROP but it has to be within
reasonable and rational criteria. You can’t have an OROP where pensions are
revised every month or every year,” he said.
He said that recommendations of 7th
Pay Commission for government employees was coming shortly.
“I have been very vigilant about
fiscal prudence and therefore my job is really that of a housewife in the sense
that you must measure every rupee that the house spends so that you don’t overspend
and then borrow and if you start borrowing beyond a point and indulge in fiscal
indiscipline,” Jaitley told a news channel.
Ex-servicemen have been agitating
for 78 days at Jantar Mantar here demanding the implementation of one rank, one
pension, including annual revision of pension.
“We accept the principle (of OROP).
We will implement the principle but then let us not create incidence which are
going to set (precedent for) other segments of the society to also start
demanding (the same),” Jaitley said.
He, however, said, “we would like to
safeguard the interest of those soldiers who retire at age of 35 or 38 years
and the society must protect them ... and therefore some higher pension on a
special formulation is understandable but then it can’t be revised every year.”
Stating that the Indian political
thought process that thinks rationally will not make “unreasonable concessions”
merely on emotions, he said such a move can set precedent for others to seek
similar benefits.
“Can the
BSF do it? Can the CRPF do it? Obviously, the thinking India will say it’s not
the right step to take. You can’t create a liability that the future
generations will have to pay. Therefore, on a rational criteria OROP, we should
certainly be able to implement,” he said. — PTI
Source:THE TRIBUNE ON LINE
