Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan on Wednesday said Tamil Nadu BJP president K. Annamalai’s claims on the Contributory Pension Scheme of government employees were “completely wrong and against truth”. He termed the BJP leader ‘ignorant’.
Mr. Thiaga Rajan said the Contributory Pension Scheme was introduced by the AIADMK government in 2003, and all employees of the State government were members under the scheme. A total of 6,02,377 employees were part of the scheme as on date, he said.
He said the members and the State government contributed 10% each, and the amount was credited directly to the individual accounts of the members. The government had been regularly paying interest on the contribution. “This is being administered since 2003 by the State government. Whether to join the National Pension Scheme (NPS) or not is a policy decision of the government,” he said.
Mr. Thiaga Rajan said the contribution of the members as on March 31, 2022 was ₹53,555.75 crore, of which ₹41,264.63 crore was in a superannuation fund with LIC, and ₹12,000 crore was invested through the RBI in the Union government’s Treasury Bills.
“The government has set aside these funds only for the pension of the government employees. The member’s contribution, the State’s matching contribution and the interest are credited directly to their individual accounts, and have not been used for any other purpose till now. Even in the future, these funds will be used only for the pension of the members,” he said, adding that the interest for the current year was 7.1%, and was being credited to each member’s account every quarter.
The Finance Minister said the funds were being administered transparently, and the details had already been tabled in a policy note in the State Assembly and made public.
Earlier, Mr. Annamalai had claimed that the Tamil Nadu government had not deposited ₹10,436 crore in pension funds with the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). Mr. Thiaga Rajan pointed out that PFRDA was only a regulatory authority, and no one could deposit any money with it.
“Mr. Annamalai is only trying to cause confusion among government employees with his lies. He is trying to divert people’s attention. This only shows his ignorance and lack of knowledge of issues of financial administration,” he said.
