To provide proper opportunities to the defense forces a new scheme has been in talks by the central government which is known as the One Rank One Pension Scheme 2024 and people have been working to implement this scheme for a long time now to provide equality between the defense forces and the defense personnels. A lot of opportunities will be provided to the defense forces after they have been included in the development of this prestigious One Rank One Pension (OROP) 2024 created by the central government. You can check out the details related to the Features and Revised Benefits under this scheme by checking out the article provided below.
What is One Rank One Pension?
One rank one pension scheme is created by the central government to provide opportunities to the defense forces people who have retired after they have reached the age of 60 years which is the normal age of retirement in the Government of India. This is a scheme that will be implemented to provide a uniform pension to be paid to the defense forces personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service regardless of their date of retirement. The gap between the rate of pensions for the current and the past pensioners will be abolished. The people who will be discharged from their request will not be eligible for this scheme. A proper committee will be formed to implement this prestigious scheme created by the central government.
Latest Updates
The government on Friday approved the revision of the pension of armed forces personnel under the Rank One Pension scheme with retrospective effect from July 1, 2019, and the decision will benefit around 25 lakh pensioners. The decision taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will result in an additional annual expenditure of Rs 8,450 crore, according to the defense ministry. Rs 23,638 crore will be paid as arrears to the pensioners from July 2019 to June 2022. The pension of the past pensioners would be re-fixed based on an average minimum and maximum pension of defense forces retirees of calendar year 2018 in the same rank with the same length of service.
Features Of One Rank One Pension
The following features will be provided through the development of this scheme:-
- The past pensioners will be benefited through the implementation because their pension will be refixed based upon the pension of the retiring as per the calendar year 2013 and the beneficiaries will be getting the benefits starting from 2015.
- The pension will be calculated again for all of the pensioners based on the average minimum and maximum pension of the personnel who retired in 2013 in the same rank and with the same length of service.
- Pension will protect the people who are drawing above the average.
- People who opt for a discharge based upon their request will not be entitled to the benefit of one rank-one pension.
- The government has also decided to appoint a judicial committee to look after the scheme.
Benefits Of One Rank One Pension
The following benefits will be provided to the people who are applying for this scheme:-
- As of July 1, 2014, the benefit for past pensioners will be recalculated using the pension of retirees for the calendar year 2013.
- The average of the minimum and maximum pensions of employees who retired in 2013 in the same rank and with the same amount of service will be used to recalculate pensions for all pensioners.
- Pension protection for people drawing more than the average is required.
- Four equally spaced half-yearly payments shall be made for arrears.
- All family pensioners, including those receiving Special/Liberalized family pensions and Gallantry award winners, will, however, get their pay in a single installment.
- Recalculation of the pension would occur every five years.
Beneficiaries Of One Rank One Pension
The following people will get benefits through the implementation of the one rank one pension scheme:-
- Defence Forces Pensioners retired up to 30.06.2014/ family pensioners benefited from OROP.
- A sum of ₹ 10,795.40 crore has been disbursed to 20,60,220 Defence Forces Pensioners/Family Pensioners as arrears on account of the implementation of OROP.
- The yearly recurring expenditure on account of OROP is about ₹ 7,123.38 crores.
- For about six years starting from 01.07.2014, the total expenditure was over ₹ 42,740 crore.
- OROP beneficiaries also got the benefit of fixation of pension under the 7th CPC while calculating the pension by a multiplication factor of 2.57.
Implementation of OROP
The scheme will be implemented based on the following detailed procedure presented by the Indian government:-
- 3rd Central Pay Commission recommended weightage in qualifying service for a pension from 3 to 9 years depending on the ranks.
- High-Level Committee on Problems of Ex-Servicemen – 1984 (K.P. Singh Dev Committee) recommended that the Government should consider the issue of ‘One Rank One Pension, particularly in the light of the principle, which has establish with respect to the pension of judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts.
- The 4th Central Pay Commission observed that it is difficult to accept the suggestion for equalization of pension. Moreover, this would involve considerable administrative and accounting work without conferring any uniform benefits to various categories of pensioners.
- the 5th Central Pay Commission did not recommend the grant of ‘One Rank One Pension’ by stating that every Pay Commission gives certain benefits in pay which are over and above the impact of inflation, either due to the upgradation of recruitment qualifications or change in job contents. The benefits accorded on this account need not necessarily be passed on to the pensioners.
- RM’s Committee Report (June 2003) left the issue to be considered by the Inter-Ministerial Committee set up by the Government on the issue of ‘One Rank One Pension’.
- The Inter-Ministerial Committee was set up on 27.02.2003 by the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare to consider the demand of ‘One Rank One Pension’.
- The Committee, in its report submitted on 24.09.2004 did not favor grant of ‘One Rank One Pension’, but recommended grant of modified parity based on the maximum of the revised scale of pay introduced with effect from 01.01.1996 for PBOR.
- The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence in its 20th and 21st report reiterated their earlier recommendations for providing ‘One Rank One Pension’ to the Armed Forces Personnel.
- A Group of Ministers (GOM) was set up in January 2005 by the Government to look into this demand. GOM did not recommend ‘One Rank One Pension’.
- The 6th Pay Commission has also not recommended ‘One Rank One Pension’.
- Cabinet Secretary Committee, 2009 went into this demand and other related issues, but did not recommend ‘One Rank One Pension’. However, it made seven recommendations aimed at narrowing the gap between past and current pensioners.
- The Standing Committee in its 7th and 9th (15th Lok Sabha) Report again reiterated their stand on ‘One Rank One Pension’.
- Rajya Sabha Petition Committee in its 142nd Report stated that the Government should implement ‘One Rank One Pension’ in the Defence Forces across the board.
- Cabinet Secretary Committee (2012) did not recommend the implementation of ‘One Rank One Pension’, however, it recommended various other ways to enhance the pension of past retirees.
Steps Taken By The Government
The following steps will be by the government to initiate the scheme:-
- The One Rank One Pension was adopted by the Government when it was mentioned in the President’s address to both Houses of Parliament on June 9, 2014, following the formation of the 16th Lok Sabha
- For the execution of OROP, the Budget 2014–15 allotted Rs. 1000 crore.
- Several meetings were convened in the Ministry of Defence to work out the specifics of implementing OROP for the Defense Forces, as per the Government’s decision.
- Before issuing a Government directive on OROP implementation, comprehensive talks with experts and ex-servicemen were held to take into account the size and complexity of the Defence pension.
- By releasing an order on November 7, 2015, the Indian government made the historic decision to adopt OROP as a sign of its dedication to the welfare of Ex-Servicemen.
- This Order covers retired members of the armed forces as of June 30, 2014.
Financial Benefits
Rank wise likely estimated increase (in rupees) in service pension under OROP w.e.f. July 01, 2019 is in the table provided below:
| Rank | Pension as on 01.01.2016 | Revised pension w.e.f. 01.07.2019 | Likely arrears from 01.07.2019 to 30.06.2022 |
| Sepoy | 17,699 | 19,726 | 87,000 |
| Naik | 18,427 | 21,101 | 1,14,000 |
| Havildar | 20,066 | 21,782 | 70,000 |
| Nb Subedar | 24,232 | 26,800 | 1,08,000 |
| Sub Major | 33,526 | 37,600 | 1,75,000 |
| Major | 61,205 | 68,550 | 3,05,000 |
| Lt. Colonel | 84,330 | 95,400 | 4,55,000 |
| Colonel | 92,855 | 1,03,700 | 4,42,000 |
| Brigadier | 96,555 | 1,08,800 | 5,05,000 |
| Maj. Gen. | 99,621 | 1,09,100 | 3,90,000 |
| Lt. Gen. | 1,01,515 | 1,12,050 | 4,32,000 |
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