The Punjab government in November 2022 announced that all of its employees covered under the National Pension System (NPS) would be given the benefits of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS). Now, in its new notification dated September 13, 2026, the Punjab government has said that while the intent of the November 2022 notification is to provide the OPS to its employees, the nature of the scheme will continue to be the ‘defined contributory pension scheme’.
The state government further said that it is taking an extension of four months where it would comprehensively examine the administrative feasibility, financial implications, and operational modalities for the implementation of the proposed modified pension scheme after thorough examination of recent developments, including the UPS.
The Punjab government also said that it would study the best practices being followed in other states and recommend any other alternative pension model for the State.
Does Punjab government want to adopt UPS-like scheme for its pensioners?
The notification doesn’t clarify whether the proposed pension scheme will be on the lines of the UPS, but it gives an impression that the scheme can be similar to the one where an employee and their employer both contribute to the retirement corpus of the employee, and where employees also get assured pension on completion of certain years of service. While the UPS is a scheme within the NPS ecosystem, it is available only to government employees.
