CPI(M) makes balancing act to propose alternative pension fund policy / Dec 21, 2005 / New Kerala
From Indiapensions
CPI(M) makes balancing act to propose alternative pension fund policy
Kolkata: Balancing principle with economic reality, the CPI(M) has come out with an alternative proposal for the proposed Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill seeking public sector fund managers to handle the pension system, backed by a Government guarantee for return.
The proposal, chalked out by the CPI(M) West Bengal State Committee, has already been sent to the party's Central Committee for a discussion with the UPA Government.
Set to oppose the proposed Bill , which seeks the funds to be handled by private fund managers, the party, leading a Left clamour against any such move, had been at loggerheads with the Government over the issue.The the Left parties, supporting the Government from outside, had been hell bent on not allowing the Bill to be introduced in Parliament in the present form.
" We have chalked out an alternative proposal. The fund managers must be in the public sector with good credibility and the Government should give a guarantee for return to the pensioner," CPI(M) State Secretary Anil Biswas said.
The party's State Committee gave a formal approval to the proposal at a meeting held here yesterday.
While the party stood its ground on the question of investment in stock market, it however, appeared to have made a compromise with the reality that it was difficult for any Government to bear with the huge pension liability and there were needs for fund managers.
Mr.Biswas, however, claimed that there were fundamental differences between what the party had proposed and what the original Bill proposed."We are against privatisation of the pension funds since share market is highly speculative and does not keep in with the interest of a pensioner, " he said.
CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat had earlier called upon the Government to redraft the Pension Bill and make provision for a gurantee of return.
