Maharashtra Cabinet approves revised National Pension Scheme for govt employees on lines of Centre’s UPS

The Maharashtra Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, has approved the implementation of a revised National Pension Scheme (NPS) for state government employees on the lines of the Centre’s Unified Pension Scheme (UPS).

The revised National Pension Scheme of the state government will be implemented from March 1, 2024. There are 13.45 lakh state government employees and also from local self-government.

Of the 13.45 lakh employees, 8.27 lakh employees are presently covered under the National Pension Scheme.

The Cabinet gave its consent based on the report submitted by a high-level committee headed by retired IAS officer Suresh Kumar which had recommended that the state government should bear the risk of investment in the NPS.

As per the revised pension scheme, the employees will get a pension equal to 50 percent of their last salary plus dearness allowance and 60 percent of the family pension.  

However, the difference between the UPS and the state government’s revised NPS is that under the UPS the employees will get an average of the last 12 months’ salary and in the revised NPS they will get a pension equal to 50 percent of their last salary.

The Cabinet also gave approval to increase the scope of the scheme of providing uninterrupted electricity to farmers during the day.

The government also approved various irrigation projects to benefit Pune, Nashik, Jalgaon districts.