FM for amendments on pension bill

New Delhi: The UPA government is keen to push through the crucial pension bill in the ongoing winter session of parliament.

In the last UPA-Left coordination committee meeting, Finance Minister P Chidambaram even suggested some amendments to the bill to win the crucial support of the Left. But the Left leaders say that the amendments are just cosmetic.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram is on a fire-fighting mission to save the pension bill. The minutes of the UPA-Left coordination committee meeting clearly show that to win the support of the Left parties before the bill is voted upon in parliament, the Finance Ministry has suggested four amendments.

They include:

• Restrict FDI in the pension sector at 26 per cent.
• Allow pension plan holders the option of 100 per cent investment in government securities.
• Allow at least 1 PSU fund manager.
• And allowing part withdrawal from pension accounts by creating a Tier II account.

But the Left parties are not convinced, they say these changes are mere cosmetic since they follow only the standing committee?s recommendations against which dissent notes have already been sent.

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The Left trade unions are dead against any FDI and want only PSU fund managers in the sector.

They also feel that there are not enough safeguards in place even though the government is allowing pension contributions to be parked in the stock market.

At the core of the entire hullabaloo over the pension bill is a clause, which rules out assured returns and links all benefits to the market.

The Left trade unions want this fundamental clause to go but the Finance Ministry says if that happens then the new system is bound to become yet another UTI.

In such a stalemate a smooth passage of the bill in the winter session of the parliament seems very difficult.