PANAJI
The Finance department has directed all the departments to settle the cases of the employees, who were given one-time window to decide whether they want to exit the National Pension Scheme (NPS) and shift to the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules.
In 2022, the State government adopted the Centre’s Office Memorandum, wherein the Government employees working in posts that were declared vacant before August 2005 but who were recruited much later were given a one-time window to decide whether they want to exit the NPS. NPS replaced the Central Civil Services (Pension) 1972 from August 2005.
“The cases of those retired Government servants who fulfil the conditions stated in the Office Memorandum and who exercise option to switch over to the pension scheme under CCS (Pension) Rules may be settled by the administrative Ministries/Departments in accordance with these orders,” Under Secretary Finance Pranab Bhat said in the OM issued.
The shift to NPS in the 2000s was a major, hard-won fiscal reform introduced by the Centre but it has upset government employees who prefer the old pension scheme which provided a fixed assured pension for life.
