NPS New Rule: The Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) has issued new guidelines to ensure timely payment of pension to retired employees of the National Pension System (NPS).
In an office memorandum issued on March 12, 2025, the CPAO has reminded the concerned officials that NPS pension cases should be processed in the same manner as OPS (Old Pension Scheme), as was earlier directed on December 18, 2023.
Although clear instructions were given earlier, the CPAO found that some Pay and Accounts Offices are still not following the guidelines for pension cases. In particular, where only two PPO booklets should be submitted, some offices are still submitting provisional PPOs with three copies under the old procedure. Due to which there is unnecessary delay in processing the pension.
To streamline pension disbursement, the CPAO has appealed to all concerned officials, Principal CCA, CCA, AG and Authorized Bank CPPC to strictly follow the guidelines. This is aimed at ensuring that retired people continue to receive their pension on time and without any interruption.
The difference between OPS and NPS for government employees has always been a matter of discussion. Let us tell you that in January 2004, the central government discontinued OPS and implemented the National Pension System in its place. However, many states restarted it after trade unions and employee representative bodies started agitations and protests against the New Pension Scheme.
Employee unions are demanding restoration of OPS
Now that the Unified Pension Scheme has been announced and is to be implemented from April 1 this year, many employee unions are demanding the Centre to restore OPS.
Difference between OPS and NPS
- Under OPS, employees used to get a fixed monthly pension after retirement, which was a fixed part of their last salary. In this, the government used to give full guarantee of pension, which provided financial security to people after retirement.
- On the other hand, NPS is a contribution based scheme in which both the employee and the company invest a fixed amount. The pension amount depends entirely on the performance of the market, i.e. the amount received after retirement is not fixed. Because of this, many retired employees are confused about it.
Now CPAO has taken the initiative to simplify NPS pension processing by issuing new guidelines. For a long time, delay in pension approval was causing trouble for retired employees. According to the new rules of CPAO, pension processing of employees retiring under NPS will be made similar to the process of OPS. This will not only make pension disbursement fast and transparent, but will also ensure that NPS beneficiaries continue to receive their pension on time and without any hassle.
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