Employees would need to give consent to avail NPS benefit

Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh Cabinet on Friday decided to implement the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) for its employees.

The Cabinet decided that after necessary amendments in the rules, the contribution by the government and the employees under NPS will stop from 1st April 2023. No deductions would be made from the employees from their salary under NPS from 1st April 2023.

However, Cabinet also gave options to the employees if any want to be governed under NPS. Employees would require to give consent to the Government for the same.

Cabinet also decided to bring employees under the ambit of GPF and those employees under New Pension Scheme (NPS), who have retired after 15 May 2003, will be given OPS from the prospective date.

The Government will spend an additional amount of Rs. 1000 crore in the fiscal year 2023-24 on the implementation of OPS.

The cabinet has also passed a resolution to be sent to the Union Government to return an amount of Rs. 8000 crores under the NPS, to the state.

The Cabinet has asked the Finance Department to amend the rules and issue necessary instructions in this regard.