The New Pension Scheme for the Central and State Government employees is having a corpus of about Rs.9500 crore in its kitty. There are seven Fund Managers   appointed to manage the same viz. SBI, LIC, ICICI Prudential, UTI, IDFC, Kotak and Reliance Capital. How the Funds of the hard-earned money of the workers are being invested?

The reports in the media indicates that most of the Fund Managers have violated the conditions laid by the PFRDA. Some of them have put the funds in their own subsidiaries beyond the cap mentioned by the PFRDA. Some others have violated other conditions. It is the money of the workers and the investment should be transparent. But it is again reported that the Fund Managers are very secretive about the investments and are not prepared to divulge them.

All these reports validate the doubts and opposition raised by the trade unions. Just like the pension funds were lost in the US and Eropean countries in the 2007 recession, there is chance for loss in India also some times.

The fact that the government rejected the main three recommendations of the Parliament Standing Committee, (1) to fix a minimum assured pension (2) to allow liberal withdrawal from the fund by the suscribers and (3) fix a cap on FDI clearly indicates that there is real danger in the NPS as also the PFRDA Bill, which is now before the Parliament.

Another factor to be considered is the strong support given by the MNCs and private sector for the PFRDA Bill. The press media is full of arguments by these sections trying to paint the scheme as  very beneficial to the employees. That itself is a clear indication to whose benefits the act is being brought.

The ruling party Congress and the main opposition party BJP – both are together in bringing this anti-worker bill. Sustained struggle is the only option before the workers to get it scrapped.