Tag: family pension

Public sector banks will have to make an additional provision of over Rs 21,300 crore annually on account of a hike in family pension and higher contribution toward the National Pension System (NPS), according to a report.

A special dispensation will be sought from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to allow provisions over the next five years, it said.

The plan

Acknowledging that family pension for bank employees is at a paltry level, the government this week had announced that it would raise the same to 30% of the last drawn salary.

Earlier, kin of a deceased PSB employee used to get a maximum of Rs 9,284 per month as a family pension, said Department of Financial Services Secretary Debasish Panda.

“The cap has been completely removed and a uniform slab of 30% at the last-drawn salary will be entitled as family pension,” Panda told reporters here, admitting that the earlier levels were “paltry”.

NPS hike

Similarly, the ministry has also decided to increase the employer’s contribution to the New Pension Scheme (NPS) to 14% of the salary from the current 10%, he said.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman expressed her satisfaction at public sector banks’ performance in the past few years and appreciated that many of them have come out of the RBI’s prompt corrective action framework.

Panda said a dozen PSBs have become leaner and started delivering profits which have upped the investor confidence in them and made them self-dependent for capital raising.

He said that since last year, the banks have collectively raised over Rs 69,000 crore, including Rs 10,000 crore in equity, and are in the process of raising another Rs 12,000 crore at present.

As on March 31, the total number of pensioners stood at around 5.66 lakh and family pensioners at over 1.55 lakh.