The Maharashtra government has made its revised National Pension Scheme optional for current employees and provided a deadline of December 31, 2026 for opt-in submissions. According to reports from Mint, the revised NPS was approved two years ago by the Maharashtra cabinet to be implemented for state government employees on the lines of the Centre's Unified Pension Scheme (UPS). The scheme will be implemented on an opt-in basis, applying only to those who exercise the option within the specified deadline.
As reported by Mint, employees retiring at the prescribed age with 20 years or more of service who opt for the revised scheme will be entitled to pension equal to 50% of their last drawn salary, along with dearness allowance (DA). For employees with service between 10-20 years, pension will be proportionate to the length of service based on the last drawn salary. The minimum pension payout has been fixed at ₹7,500 per month for employees retiring after at least 10 years of service under the revised scheme. Additionally, family pension at 60% of the admissible pension along with dearness relief will be provided by the government.
According to the circular reported by Mint, state government employees, aided educational institutions, agricultural universities, affiliated non-government colleges, zilla parishads and panchayat samitis in Maharashtra are eligible for the revised NPS benefits. However, employees with less than 10 years of service are not entitled to pension benefits. Employees who resign will not be eligible for pension under the revised scheme and will continue to receive benefits only under the existing NPS framework. The finance department stated that a separate detailed procedure will be released for the disbursement of pension under the revised scheme.
As reported by Mint, under the revised NPS, employees must deposit 60% of the accumulated corpus received from the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) with the government through the drawing and disbursing officer at the time of retirement. The remaining 40% of the accumulated fund will be utilised to purchase an annuity, and the annuity amount will be adjusted against the pension payable by the state government. Early withdrawal from NPS corpus is allowed under the revised scheme, but the amount must be refunded with 10% interest, failing which the entitlement will be adjusted accordingly. Retirement gratuity will be applicable to those opting for the revised scheme as per earlier orders issued in March 2023.
