The Central government has given a much-needed relief to families of bank employees. Recently, the Finance Ministry approved a proposal of Indian Banks' Association (IBA) to increase the family pension to 30 per cent of last drawn salary.
This was announced by the Secretary of Department of Financial Services under Finance Ministry at a press meet addressed by FinMin Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday. As per reports, the family pension would go up to as much as Rs 30,000 to Rs 35,000 per family of bank employees.
In continuation of the 11th bi-partite settlement on wage revision of public sector bank employees signed by the IBA with the unions last year in November, there was a proposal for enhancement of family pension and also the employers' contribution under the National Pension Scheme (NPS).
The same has been approved by the Finance Minister, the Secretary of DFS said. Earlier the scheme had slabs of 15, 20 and 30 percent of the pay that a pensioner drew at that point of time. It was capped subject to a maximum of Rs 9,284. That was a very paltry sum.
The Secretary said that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was concerned and wanted that to be revised so that family members of bank employees get a decent amount to survive and sustain.
Latest reports suggest that family members of deceased bankers in Public Sector Banks will now get a pension of 30% of last drawn salary as against the earlier income of Rs 9,284. Further, the government has also approved the proposal to increase the contribution made by PSBs for employee pensions under NPS to 14% from the existing 10%.
Thousands of families of PSU bank employees will be benefited by the enhanced Family Pension, while increase in employers’ contribution will provide increased financial security to the bank employees under NPS.