On Wednesday, the Union government increased the pension slab of bank employees. With this announcement, the bank employee’s family will be entitled to receive a pension at uniform slab of 30% of last drawn salary. The pension benefits for families will be increased to Rs 30,000 to Rs 35,000, added Debasish Panda, Secretary, department of financial services, Ministry of Finance. Earlier the cap was fixed at Rs 9,284.
Indian Banking Association (IBA) earlier recommended that family pension, which was payable at the slab rates of 15%, 20% and 30% for different categories of pensioners, should be improved without any fixed cap. Ministry of Finance has decided to give approval to this recommendation to benefit thousands of bank employees and their families.
Apart from this, the government has ordered the banks to raise employer's contribution in pension corpus to 14% from the existing 10%.
On Wednesday, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, "Collectively, public sector banks have done well and have come out of Prompt Corrective Action despite service extended during a pandemic." She further added, "With changed times, now industries have option of raising funds even from outside the banking sector. Banks themselves are raising funds through various avenues. These new aspects need to be studied to target credit where it is needed."