New Delhi: The one rank one pension plan has run into a financial hurdle. The veterans wanted an annual revision, but the finance minister has put his foot down. He has ruled out annual revision of pension saying the government was committed to OROP but the “only difficulty” is the “arithmetical translation”.
“I have my own formula on what OROP means. Somebody else may have their own formula on OROP but it has to be within reasonable and rational criteria. You can’t have an OROP where pensions are revised every month or every year,” he said. “I have been very vigilant about fiscal prudence and therefore my job is really that of a housewife in the sense that you must measure every rupee in that the house spends so that you don’t overspend and then borrow and if you start borrowing beyond a point and indulge in fiscal indiscipline,” Jaitley added speaking to ET NOW.
Ex-servicemen have been agitating for 78 days at Jantar Mantar here demanding implementation of “one rank, one pension”, including annual revision of pension. Jaitley said that the government accepts the principle of OROP and said that they will implement the principle but the government does want to create an incidence which is going to set a precedent for other segments of the society to also start demanding the same.
He, however, said, “we would like to safeguard the interest of those soldiers who retire at age of 35 or 38 years and the society must protect them… and therefore some higher pension on a special formulation is understandable but then it can’t be revised every year.”
He said that recommendations of 7th Pay Commission for government employees was coming shortly. The Commission’s term has been extended by four months and these too will have an impact.
