Assam adopts Unified Pension Scheme for state govt employees

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced on October 6 that the state government has officially adopted the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS), a modified version of the National Pension System (NPS) recently introduced by the Government of India.

The shift is set to impact thousands of state government employees.

Speaking to reporters, Sarma explained that the UPS aims to bridge the gap between the existing NPS and the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), offering substantial benefits to employees.

“The Government of India has adopted the UPS scheme, which is a modified version of the NPS. In NPS, the government’s contribution was 10%, but under UPS, it will increase to 18.5%,” he said.
The Chief Minister added that the Assam government has extended the same benefits to state employees as those available to central government staff.

“The state government has adopted the UPS scheme, which is similar to what central government employees will receive. Now the same scheme will be available for state government employees as well,” he said.

Existing employees will have a one-year window to decide whether they wish to continue under the NPS or switch to the UPS. “If someone adopts UPS, their contribution in NPS will be automatically transferred to the UPS account,” Sarma clarified.

The Chief Minister emphasized that the introduction of the UPS will resolve the long-standing debate between the NPS and OPS systems. “With the adoption of this scheme, the debate between NPS and OPS has finally come to an end,” he declared.