What has been the progress on efforts to reform the Employees Pension Scheme (EPS)?
The Parliamentary Standing Committee report on the scheme is awaited. The report seeks a separate workers’ bank. Do you think it’s feasible? We haven’t got the report. As for a workers’ bank, it’s an idea that has to be discussed for a decision to follow. I feel it will require different infrastructure and cannot be run with the resources of the EPF. A reform of the pension scheme has to follow the premise that the pension amounts will depend on how much the emloyees have saved. Not much can be done to change that. How do you propose to fix the hole in the EPF which has been reported to be about Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion)? This was the finding of an actuarial report. The gap is still there and will take time to reduce as liabilities increase with more and more people falling in the pension net. The only way out is to grow. We have to keep growing to ensure that we cover people who are not paying into the fund. The present size of the gap between receipts and liabilities will be k
