‘Unfunded pension schemes are attack on future generations’

Concerned over revival of Old Pension Scheme by certain Opposition-ruled states, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) member Sanjeev Sanyal on Monday said unfunded pension schemes are ultimately attacks on future generations. Sanyal further said given the current stress in the global economy and the repeated downgrades done to the world GDP growth numbers by international agencies, it is quite obvious that 2023 will also be a difficult period. ”It should be very clear that unfunded pension schemes are ultimately attacks on future generations. Therefore, one should be very, very careful to reverse pension reforms that have been done with great difficulty over the last couple of decades,” he told PTI in an interview. Sanyal was responding to a question on some Opposition-ruled states’ decision to switch to Old Pension Scheme (OPS). The OPS, under which the entire pension amount was given by the government, was discontinued by the NDA government in 2003 from April 1, 2004. Under New Pension Scheme, employees contribute 10 per cent of their basic salary towards pension while the state government contributes 14 per cent. Two Congress-ruled states, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, have already decided to implement OPS. Jharkhand too has decided to revert to OPS, while Aam Aadmi Party-ruled Punjab recently approved the reimplementation of OPS. Asked what measures should the government take to reduce the trade deficit with China, Sanyal said one should look at the overall trade deficit. ”Nevertheless, reliance on one country is an issue that we do take seriously and therefore there are efforts being made that key ingredients in pharmaceuticals or chips for manufacturing and so on are not coming from a single foreign source,” he said. The trade deficit, the difference between imports and exports, between India and China touched USD 51.5 billion during April-October this fiscal year. The deficit during 2021-22 had jumped to USD 73.31