Number of pensioners? No one knows

The EPFO's handling of data for the country's pensioners and their vital social security statistics has come under severe criticism from a parliamentary panel which has asked the government to develop a database of all existing and new entrants to the organisation's pension scheme.

The committee has termed the Employee Provident Fund Organisation's data on number of pensioners subscribed to the Employee's Pension Scheme, 1995 as 'inflated and imaginary'.

Top officials of the labour ministry and the provident fund organisation were unable to explain how calculations for pensionary liability were arrived at without knowing the number of pensioners in the country.

"Regarding number of pensioners in the country, two different replies quoting different figures i.e. 29.53 lakh at one place while 15.20 lakh at another have been given," the parliamentary panel noted.

When the panel had sought to learn about the absence in data of new entrants who opted to join the new scheme instead of the 1971 Family Pension Scheme, the ministry replied that such data is not maintained as the number of such persons would be very 'few' and most would have their benefits only after 37 years of service.

Top Labour ministry officials, including Secretary Sudha Pillai, three other deputy secretaries, and CPF Commissioner K C Pandey were unable to explain discrepancies in the data as pointed out by the panel chaired by Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy.

When the panel sought to know how calculations regarding pensionary liability were arrived at in the absence of authentic data, the officials said they rely on claims submitted by members and their families for gathering data on different kind of pensioners and their status.

The committee described the lack of initiative in determining the exact number of pensioners by EPFO, the country's biggest social security organisation, as a 'glaring example of shirking basic responsibility'.

Maintaining that the labour ministry is yet to take advantage of technology in the era of e-governance, the committee said the government should develop a database of all existing and new entrants to the pension scheme.

It has also sought addition of columns in the database format stating the minimum time for pension eligibility, actual date for retirement as per superannuation age and scope to self-update job profile of members.

Asking the government to consider issuing of Smart Cards to pensioners containing all details, the panel noted that it will help identify the exact number of pensioners in different categories, figures about exit rate, exact money outgo, thus improving the financial health of the pension scheme.