The direct cash transfer of pension schemes will cover all the States by the end of this year, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said on Monday. Receiving the report of a task force to make the National Social Assistance Programme more comprehensive, Ramesh said the number of beneficiaries under the pension schemes, such as old age, widow and disability pension, will increase from 2.7 crore to 8 crore by the end of the 12th Plan.
The task force, set up by the ministry, was headed by the Planning Commission member Mihir Shah. It recommended that the amount under the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme should be increased to Rs 300 from Rs 200 for the age group 60 to 79. The report said the revision would require an additional outlay of Rs 1,762 crore a year. “This will benefit the existing 1.47 crore old age pensioners in this age group,” it added.
The focus of the task force was to make the NSPA comprehensive by ensuring citizen and beneficiary centricity of the schemes. It also looked at issues in fixing eligibility criteria, quantum of assistance, processes relating to identification, sanction and disbursement and strengthening the administrative structure.
The Government said Phase-I recommendations of the panel will be made effective from the next financial year and Phase-II recommendations from 2014-15 to 2016-17. “The ultimate objective to be achieved is that all households eligible for benefits under the National Food Security Act will also be provided pensions under the National Social Assistance Programme by the end of the Plan Period (2016-17),” a Government release said. Ramesh added that the proposal to increase old age pension and revising the eligibility norms for widow pension by reducing minimum age from 40 years to 18 years and removing age restrictions and reduction of disability level from 80 per cent to 40 per cent will be taken before the Cabinet soon.
Pensioners unhappy
The Pension Parishad, a gathering of various organisations working for the rights of socially oppressed, said the task force’s recommendations were a “death warrant” for the elderly. “By the time the scheme reaches the elderly in 2016-17, as recommended by the task force, many of them will be dead, given their precarious existence,” said National Advisory Council member Aruna Roy.
Economist Jayati Ghosh said pensions should not be seen as cost but as a ‘source of demand’. A decent universal pension would increase domestic demand, which would have a multiplier effect in increasing employment as well as push small-scale production, she added. She said measures such as higher taxes on corporates, increase in gold import duty could easily bring in the required resources.