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Centre revises defence pensions with arrears
The OROP scheme, first implemented with effect from 2014, envisaged a revision every five years. It has been revised with effect from July 1, 2019, and the arrears will be paid for the period July 2019 to June 2022, Union minister Anurag Thakur said.
The Union Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Friday approved the revision of pension of ex-servicemen and family pensioners under the one rank, one pension (OROP) scheme, with the move set to benefit more than 2.5 million defence pensioners who will be paid arrears amounting to ₹23,638 crore, information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur announced in a briefing.
The scheme, first implemented with effect from 2014, envisaged a revision every five years. It has been revised with effect from July 1, 2019, and the arrears will be paid for the period July 2019 to June 2022, Thakur said.
Retired jawans will get arrears amounting to ₹87,000, colonels ₹4.42 lakh and lieutenant generals ₹4.32 lakh, according to details shared by top government officials. The arrears will be paid in four half-yearly instalments to veterans, except family pensioners and gallantry awardees who will get their dues in a single instalment.
The OROP scheme for defence pensioners is a decades-old demand that provides equal pension to military personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, regardless of the date of retirement. It was implemented by the Modi government in November 2015 with effect from July 2014.
The re-fixation of pension was to be done in the year 2019 but the matter was pending in court at the time.
Earlier this month, the Centre moved the Supreme Court, seeking extension of time till March 15, 2023, for payment of arrears of OROP scheme to all eligible pensioners of the armed forces.
On March 16, the top court had affirmed the OROP principle adopted by the Centre, saying it does not suffer from any “constitutional infirmity” and is not “arbitrary”.
In June, the government sought three months to compute and make payment of the OROP arrears and received the court’s nod.
On December 15, it approached the court again, seeking another three months’ extension. The Centre pointed out that after the approval of the Cabinet, various types of pension tables are required to be prepared by the Comptroller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) office and it will need additional time. The court is expected to take up the plea in January.
“Pension of the past pensioners would be re-fixed on the basis of average of minimum and maximum pension of defence forces retirees of calendar year 2018 in the same rank with the same length of service,” the defence ministry said in a statement. It said the estimated additional annual expenditure for implementation of the revision pensions would be around ₹8,450 crore. This cost is over and above the ongoing expenditure on OROP.
“More than 25.13 lakh veterans will be benefitted from this decision. My gratitude to the Prime Minister for fulfilling the commitment given to the ex-servicemen of this country,” defence minister Rajnath Singh tweeted on Friday night.
Former officers hailed the move. “Veterans had been expecting a revision for long. It’s a welcome step ahead of the new year,” said former Northern Army commander Lieutenant General DS Hooda (retd).
Armed forces personnel who retired by June 30, 2019 will be covered under the revision, officials said. The benefit would be extended to family pensioners, including war widows, and disabled pensioners.
