The Employees’ Provident Fund Organization has proposed to increase the retirement age in view of the increasing pressure on the pension fund. EPFO says that after increasing the age of retirement, more amount will be deposited in this item on behalf of the employees and they can be given better benefits and more corpus.
New Delhi. Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has suggested to increase the retirement age of private and government sector employees of the country. The pension regulator says that in view of the increasing number of senior citizens in the country, the pressure on the pension fund will increase in the coming times.
According to The Economic Times, the EPFO has said that raising the retirement age will reduce the burden on the pension system while providing better retirement benefits to the employees. A report of the organization has been told that by the year 2047, the number of people above 60 years of age in India will exceed 14 crores. This will significantly increase the pressure on pension funds. The EPFO said that the matter of increasing the retirement age is being said after studying the rules of other countries.
A senior official associated with the Pension Authority said that on the higher the retirement age, more amount will be deposited by the employee in the pension fund and he can be given better benefits. This will also help in building a big retirement fund by beating inflation. EPFO currently has about 6 crore subscribers and manages a total corpus of Rs 12 lakh crore.
What will be its loss
Labor economist KR Shyam Sundar says that by increasing the retirement age, families of older workers will get regular income for more days. This will improve their standard of living and will also increase their chances of getting a bigger corpus even after retirement. However, its other side is also harmful. After increasing the retirement age, the youth will have to wait a long time for a job.
The National Statistical Office had said in a recently released report that by 2031, the number of people above 60 years of age in India will reach 194 million, which was 138 million in 2021. In this way, within a decade, the number of senior citizens will increase by 41 percent. According to the 2011 population, the number of senior citizens increased by 3.4 crores by 2021.
What is the retirement limit now
The maximum retirement age in India currently ranges from 58 years to 65 years. This variation ranges from private sector companies to the government sector. If we talk about the European Union, then the average age of retirement there is 65 years. The retirement age in Europe in Denmark, Italy and Greece is 67 years, while in the US it is 66 years. EPFO had added 18.36 lakh new subscribers in June this year, which is 43 percent more than the same period last year.
