Currently, EPS has around 60 lakh subscribers. The government wants to increase this number to 1 crore in the next few years. The government also wants to bring self-employed people under EPFO.
The government is going to make a big change in the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995. It may allow employees to contribute more to the pension account. As of now, this facility is not available to the employees.
The government actually wants to make EPS-95 like the National Pension Scheme. This will increase the pension received by the employees after retirement. The Labor Ministry is in favor of making the EPS open to all. She also wants to increase the minimum pension to Rs 3000 per month.
At present all the subscribers of EPFO are covered under EPS. EPFO manages the pension fund of employees of private companies. At present, a certain part of the salary of the employees in EPF is deposited every month. A small part from this amount also goes to EPS. At present, people earning more than Rs 15,000 per month come under the purview of EPFO.
Currently, EPS has around 60 lakh subscribers. The government wants to increase this number to 1 crore in the next few years. The government also wants to bring self-employed people under EPFO. However, it will be voluntary.
According to the initial plan, they can be allowed to contribute 10 per cent of their income to the EPF every month. At present about 1.5 lakh are self-employed in the country. A final decision has not yet been taken on the proposal to bring self-employed people under the purview of EPFO.
If the proposal for higher contribution to EPS is approved, then an employee working in the private sector can contribute more every month to EPS. This will increase the pension he will get after retirement. At present, under EPFO, not much pension is available after retirement. Especially the pension of low-salary people is very less.
