To provide relief to the families of bank employees, the Central Government increased the pension slab. Now the family of the 7th pay commission bank employee will get pension at the same slab as 30 percent of the last drawn salary.
Debashish Panda, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, said the move would increase the pension benefit for families from Rs 30,000 to Rs 35,000. Earlier the maximum limit of pension was Rs 9,284.
The Indian Banking Association (IBA) had earlier recommended that the family pension payable at the slab rates of 15 per cent, 20 per cent and 30 per cent for different categories of pensioners should be reformed without any ceiling. The Finance Ministry had decided to approve this recommendation to benefit thousands of bank employees and their families.
Apart from this, the government has asked banks to increase the employer’s contribution to the pension fund from the current 10 per cent to 14 per cent. Earlier, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had reviewed the performance of public sector banks. He had met managing directors and CEOs of several public sector banks to discuss the progress made by the industry to generate demand and boost consumption.
Sitharaman had said that to increase the demand for loans, banks will display loan offers in every district of the country. With the changing times, industries now have the option to raise funds from outside the banking sector as well. Banks themselves are raising funds through various means. These new aspects need to be studied in order to target the credit where required.
Earlier this month, Dearness Allowance (DA) was increased for bank employees and pensioners. The new DA rate will be applicable from the month of August and will be effective till October. This will be applicable for the bankers following the 11th BPS pay structure. The DA of bank employees has increased by 2.1 percent to 27.79 percent as compared to the previous quarter.