Thiruvananthapuram, October 7:
Reserve
Bank of India retirees are frustrated over the Centre delaying final
approval to the pension updation scheme of the apex bank.
The in-principle approval came during March 2014, recall retirees.
Periodic updation
The scheme was introduced in the RBI in 1990 and made effective from 1986. It was similar to the one prevailing at the Centre.
The
bank had made a commitment to effect improvements, including periodic
updations, as and when wage revision takes place at the bank as well as
the Centre.
The
pension of employees who had retired before November 1, 1987, was
updated (effective from November 1, 1987) at the time of introduction of
the scheme. This was done by the bank through an administrative order. A
circular was issued on March 13, 1992, stating that periodic updations
would be a permanent feature of the scheme.
Pension
updation was granted on wage revision effected in 1987, 1992 and 1997
in the bank. Therefore, pre-1997 retirees continued to draw the benefits
of pension revision.
The
status quo was suddenly disturbed when the Centre in August 2005 told
the RBI that it had no powers to revise pension without seeking its
prior approval. The Centre held that the pension could not have been
granted by the bank without amending pension regulations. This put a
cloud over the wage revision decisions of 2002 and 2007, which stays
unresolved till date.
Initially,
the central board of the RBI resisted, but later agreed with the Centre
and passed a resolution to withdraw updation in its meeting held in
August 2008.
Office-bearers of the RBI Retired Employees Association moved the Bombay High Court against this order.
The
court stayed implementation of the circular withdrawing updation
already granted to pre-1997 retirees. But a decision with respect to
wage revisions in 2002 and 2007 is still pending, which is what irks
eligible retirees.
PRR
Nair, who retired as a general manager, said the RBI’s central board is
empowered to determine service conditions and allied benefits to
employees and retirees.
Own corpus fund
The bank has its own corpus fund ( Rs. 10,000 crore as on June 30, 2014) for pension and superannuation benefits, including periodical updation of pension.
It
has also been transferring gross/net profits to the Centre (see table).
In contrast, the expenditure for payouts to lakhs of government
pensioners is met out of the public exchequer.
Even
the ‘one rank, one pension’ scheme announced recently to an estimated
twenty lakh ex-servicemen and Army widows too involve huge expenditure
for the exchequer.
Pension updation for public sector bank depends on their overall annual performance and consolidated/aggregate profitability.
Keeping
all these factors in view, the retirees demand that the Centre move
ahead fast to convey its final approval for pension updation.
(This article was published in the Business Line print edition dated October 8, 2015
Regards,
E.R.Iyer
