Govt offer: OROP from last year

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 4

The Narendra Modi government is preparing to roll out the long-pending demand of one rank, one pension (OROP) scheme for ex-servicemen in the country that is expected to result in an annual outgo of up to Rs 10,000 crore, with benefits accruing from July last year.

There are at least seven elements in the draft proposal the government prepared after extensive consultations with experts and ex-servicemen over the past few weeks aimed at removing the discrepancy between present and previous pensioners.

However, the Indian Ex-servicemen Movement (IESM) rejected the government formula. Major General Satbir Singh (retd) said: “There is no agreement with us on revision of pension after five years. Our protest will continue across the country. The government formula is unacceptable.”

Besides getting benefit of OROP from July 1, 2014, the beneficiaries would be paid arrears in four half-yearly instalments barring widows who will be paid all at one go. The first pension under OROP will be fixed keeping 2013 as the base year and average will be taken of the maximum and minimum pensions being received by the retired servicemen holding the same rank and have put same number of years in service, sources privy to the draft prepared by the government told The Tribune. In case a person is getting more than the average pension at present, the same will be protected.

As a measure of welfare, widows of martyrs will also get benefits of this scheme but Army personnel who take voluntary retirement will not get advantage of the new system. 

To ensure uniformity in future, pension will be re-fixed every five years. The ex-servicemen on strike are demanding revision every two years. The government thinking, sources said, is that the five-year re-fixation would result in the superannuated servicemen holding same rank and putting same number of years in service getting benefits of re-fixed pension.

The annual pension bill is estimated anywhere between Rs 8,000 crore and Rs 10,000 crore and will grow every year, while the arrears alone will put an additional burden of Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 12,000 crore on the exchequer. Sources said since the OROP system and its calculations are complex, to protect the interests of superannuated servicemen and deal with discrepancies that may arise since military personnel retire at different time, a single-member Judicial Committee would be set up to look into inter-services matters. “The committee would be tasked to prepare and submit its report in six months,” a source said.

As for the time gap between the promise and move towards a formal order, which the Ministry of Defence is expected to announce any time soon, sources said the demand was pending for the past four decades.

Sources said though ex-servicemen were assured of OROP implementation in the last financial year and the previous Manmohan Singh government allocated Rs 500 crore in the Budget, it did not prepare any plan on the structure of the OROP as to how it would be implemented and what would be the actual expenditure.