The Nagaland National Pension System Government Service Employees Forum (NNPSGSEF) on November 4 held a car sticker / car rally campaign. Held on all the districts of Nagaland, the campaign in Kohima started from Indira Gandhi Stadium Kohima to Civil Secretariat.

In his speech, NNPSGSEF President Avizo Nienu asserted that the rally is being organized not just for ‘self benefit’ but the main objective being the demand to secure the lives of the lakhs of people, to secure the lives of old age person and to secure the life of senior citizens of Nagaland.

“I believe the good government will be kind enough to restore the old pension system, for the welfare of the state employees, and for the welfare of the citizens of Nagaland,” Nienu noted.

Following the rally, a representation was submitted to the government of Nagaland to restore the old Pension Scheme under the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972 (now 2021) for the Nagaland State Government Employees appointed after January 1, 2010, who are currently governed by the contributory National Pension System (NPS).

The representation stated that the”new pension scheme- National Pension System- has been detrimental to the interest of the employees who have been deprived from post-retirement pension benefit despite having dedicated their entire lives to the service and progress of the State.

“Because of the growing distrust in the National Pension System, the NPS subscribers felt the need to address their grievances which led to the formation of the Nagaland National Pension System Government Service Employees Forum (NNPSGSEF), a forum of the State employees covered under National Pension System (NPS) which currently has over 35,000 employees,” stated the representation.

The Forum, through its representation, was of the view that the National Pension System is a “Pension Fund System which does not give any guarantee to the employees either for assured returns or minimum pension”.

“Due to its fluctuating nature as it is a market-linked retirement plan and directly depends on the performance of the market, there is no minimum return/interest guarantee even on employee’s contribution,” highlighted the Forum.

As per the prevailing system’s policy, a monthly deduction at the rate of 10 percent is made from an employee’s basic salary including dearness allowance (DA) towards NPS. The State Government, in turn, contributes a matching share of 14 percent against the same components every month.

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The representation also stated that at the time of superannuation, the total accumulated corpus under the NPS is divided in the ratio of 60:40. Of this, 40 percent is mandatorily invested in the market to generate a monthly pension through an annuity plan, while the remaining 60 percent can be withdrawn as a lump sum. “The NPS monthly pension is based on annuity, and the returns are not fixed and are subjected to market fluctuations,” stressed the representation.

In the event of death of an employee, if the accumulated NPS amount is 5 lakhs or more, the corpus is divided 80:20 — with 20 percent paid to the nominee and 80 percent invested to generate a family pension.

The representation, however,  contended that if the accumulated amount is less than 5 lakhs, the lump sum amount is given to the nominee and no further pension is provided.

Besides some of the concerning irregularities of the National Pension System, the Forum also cited  the key differences between OPS and NPS: