Bharatiya Janata Party’s Rajya Sabha MP Ajeet Madhavrao Gopchade has formally petitioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi to resolve long-standing hurdles surrounding the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) higher payout mechanism.
Despite previous government assertions that the Supreme Court’s landmark November 4, 2022 verdict was implemented across all sectors, thousands of retirees continue to face extensive procedural delays and legal barriers.
Background: The EPS Contribution and Legal Context
Under standard Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) guidelines, an employer allocates 8.33% of an employee’s basic pay plus dearness allowance (DA) toward the EPS pension corpus. Historical caps restricted the calculation salary to ₹15,000, limiting monthly contributions to ₹1,250—a ceiling anticipated to reach roughly ₹2,083 under an upgraded ₹25,000 wage limit.
However, the Supreme Court’s November 2022 ruling protected an employee’s right to contribute based on actual, uncapped salaries to secure higher retirement payouts. Despite these judicial mandates, only a tiny fraction of eligible pensioners have actually received adjusted benefits.
Key Objections Highlighted in the Letter to the PM
In his detailed appeal, MP Gopchade raised five primary concerns regarding the ongoing administration of the higher pension scheme:
- Procedural Obstacles: Citing a May 2023 Labour Ministry memo, Gopchade noted that administrative rules like Para 26(6) of the EPF Scheme are acting as major bottlenecks, preventing valid applications from being processed smoothly.
- In a letter to the EPF Commissioner, the Ministry had written: “Under Para 26(6) of the EPF Scheme, an employer/employee has to give an option for remittance on higher wages, and the has to allow the same. It emerged that the never prescribed any format for giving this option, and more importantly, the EPFO field offices have not given/issued permission for remittance on higher wages under Para 26(6) of the EPF Scheme, though employers/employees have been remitting contribution on higher wages.”
- Unfulfilled Parliamentary Assurances: The MP noted that following his August 6, 2026 inquiry in the Rajya Sabha, the government assured the House that the ruling was applied uniformly to both exempted and unexempted trusts. This commitment became Parliamentary Assurance No. 271/72, which currently remains unresolved and marked as “pending.”
- Persistent Litigation: The continued influx of court cases across several High Courts demonstrates that structural ambiguities surrounding trust rules and past contributions persist, undermining official claims of uniform execution.
- Actuarial and Financial Stability: Gopchade called for an in-depth review of the EPS-1995 financial framework and historical contribution structure to ensure long-term solvency while meeting legitimate pensioner demands.
- Disparities Across Corporate Trusts: Retired personnel in similar public sector enterprises face glaring inequalities. For example, specific trusts within BHEL and SAIL issue higher payouts, while peer trusts at the same companies deny equivalent benefits, causing distress among retirees.
Six Actionable Demands Submitted to the PMO
To achieve equity and streamline processing, Gopchade requested a top-level review by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) alongside six core interventions:
- Remove administrative impediments caused by Para 26(6) of the EPF Scheme.
- Mandate identical treatment for eligible applicants across both exempted and unexempted establishments.
- Form an institutional mechanism that automatically applies established High Court and Supreme Court precedents to all similar applicants, bypassing unnecessary litigation.
- Conduct a thorough financial and actuarial assessment of the -1995 contribution design.
- Enforce time-bound processing for all pending higher-pension applications.
Fulfill Parliamentary Assurance No. 271/72 fully and transparently.