NPS Money Belongs To Employees As Per Law, Not For State Governments, Says Nirmala SitharamanThe finance minister said that it was the previous Congress government of Virabhadra Singh in Himachal that discontinued OPS in 2003 and started NPS

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Thursday, said that the money in the national pension scheme (NPS) belongs to the people and as per the law, it can't go back to state governments.

While responding to a question on the restoration of the old pension scheme (OPS), Sitharaman said that, "As per the law, the money in the central kitty of NPS cannot go back to state governments. It can only go back to the contributing workers. Can we change the law? It is the workers' money in the central kitty. That money has to go to the beneficiary individual workers and not to one authority and not to some other entity."

Sitharaman stated that it was the previous Congress government of Virabhadra Singh in Himachal that discontinued OPS in 2003 and started NPS, and added that, "I am not talking about politics here. I am only talking about the law."

According to previous reports, Chhattisharh CM Bhupesh Baghel had recently said that the Centre has refused to return the INR 17000 crore NPS corpus of the state government employees enrolled under NPS. It is noted that Rajasthan also asked the Centre to return the money. Also, the two states have notified the introduction of OPS for government employees and asserted that the Centre cannot hold back people's money.

The reports also stated that ahead of the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections in early December, some political parties have also announced that they will implement the OPS if they are elected to power.