Can’t make unreasonable OROP concessions: Jaitley

NEW DELHI: While angry military veterans on Monday refused to budge from their demand for “pension equalization” at least once every two years, holding that anything else will be against the “heart and soul” of the ‘one rank, one pension’ (OROP) scheme promised to them, the government said it was not in a position to give ‘unreasonable concessions’.
“The government statement that there cannot be annual revision of pensions is unfortunate. It hurts us since Parliament as well as both the previous UPA and the current NDA governments have accepted the definition of OROP,” said Major-General (retd) Satbir Singh, chairman of the Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement.
While stressing the Centre’s commitment to OROP, finance minister Arun Jaitley said it cannot make concessions which are unreasonable. “I have my own formula and others might have their own formula, but it has to be reasonable and rational. We cannot have an OROP where pensions are revised every month or year … Can every one come and start asking for annual revision of pension? Can the BSF, CRPF do it? … You cannot create a liability which future generations have to pay,” Jaitley told ET Now.
Asked about the fiscal room to implement OROP, Jaitley said: “I have been very vigilant about fiscal prudence. My job is like that of a housewife and I have to measure every rupee that the house spends, so that we don’t overspend and then borrow. Once you start borrowing beyond a point, what happened two weeks ago will be repeated frequently. That is not a situation India can accept.”
The OROP definition entails payment of uniform pension to military personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, irrespective of their date of retirement. Moreover, any further enhancement in pension rates has to be automatically passed on to past pensioners.
With the government being ready for pension “adjustment” only at five-year intervals, the veterans’ demand for “equalization” at least once every two years has become the main hurdle in the imbroglio. Another sticking point is the date of OROP implementation, with the veterans remaining steadfast about it being effective from April 2014, as they were promised earlier. From an earlier position of April 2015, the government has now come down to September 2014 for OROP implementation.
“This (OROP) was settled by Parliament through the Koshyari Committee in December 2011,” said Maj-Gen Singh. The representatives of veterans have held a series of meetings with defence minister Manohar Parrikar, PM’s principal secretary Nripendra Misra and Army chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag, among others, but the deadlock has persisted.
“We have several times explained our position to the government. Now, we have nothing more to say. If they call us, we will clarify once again,” said Maj-Gen Singh, on the 78th day of the ex-servicemen’s dharna at Jantar Mantar.
There will be additional annual outgo of at least Rs 8,300 crore if full OROP is granted to the around 25 lakh ex-servicemen in the country. If it’s implemented from 2014, it adds up to Rs 16,600 crore by now, ahead of the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission from 2016 onwards.