SRINAGAR: The Union government on Thursday informed the Rajya Sabha that more than 49 lakh pensioners under the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) are receiving less than Rs 1,500 per month as pension.
In a written reply to a question, Minister of State for Labour and Employment Shobha Karandlaje said that as on March 31, 2025, the total number of contributory members under EPS stood at 5.38 crore, while the total number of pensioners was 81.48 lakh.
Of these, 49.15 lakh pensioners receive less than Rs 500 per month, while 78.69 lakh draw pensions below 4,000. Further, 80.94 lakh pensioners get less than Rs 6,000 as monthly pension.
The Minister informed that the Employees’ Pension Fund had a corpus of Rs 9,92,689.56 crore as on March 31, 2025 (unaudited at face value). The interest income generated from the corpus rose from Rs 41,472.14 crore in 2020-21 to Rs 58,668.73 crore in 2023-24, while other income including penal damages and interest increased from Rs 274.04 crore in 2020-21 to Rs 863.62 crore in 2023-24. Data for 2023-24 is provisional and unaudited, and accounts for 2024-25 are under preparation.
On pension disbursements, the government stated that EPFO spent Rs 20,417 crore in 2020-21, Rs 21,304.6 crore in 2021-22, Rs 22,112.83 crore in 2022-23, and Rs 23,027.93 crore in 2023-24, combining withdrawal/retirement benefits and pension payments.
The government also disclosed that a total of Rs 10,898.07 crore was lying in inoperative accounts under the Employees’ Provident Fund as of March 31, 2025. This figure is also provisional and subject to finalisation of the 2024-25 annual accounts.
