Approximately Rs 92,000 crore of the corpus fund is unused and Left parties are blocking the proposed Pension Fund legislation.
Stalemate over legislation exasperates Manmohan Singh.
NEW DELHI: With approximately Rs 92,000 crore of the corpus fund lying unused and the Left parties blocking the proposed Pension Fund legislation, an exasperated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday asked CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and CPI's A B Bardhan what to do with the money.
The Prime Minister reminded the comrades that as many as 17 chief ministers, who had endorsed the new legislation, are also asking the same question and are looking for ways to meet the pension bills running into crores of rupees.
While Karat remained quiet, Bardhan suggested that the UPA government should create a National Infrastructure Fund and invest the money in building airports, flyovers, highways etc, sources said. But the Prime Minister did not react to the proposal.
The exchange took place on Thursday night at a dinner hosted by Congress president Sonia Gandhi for UPA and Left leaders.
Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Karat and Bardhan sat together at a table, while politburo member Sitaram Yechury, railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and steel minister Ramvilas Paswan were seated separately.
Finance minister P Chidambaram, Rahul Gandhi, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel, Dayanidhi Maran (DMK), Anbumani Ramdoss (PMK) D Raja (CPI) and Abani Roy (RSP) sat at a nearby table.
The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, 2005, establishes an authority to develop and regulate the new pension system, which seeks to provide old-age income security for all, including those in the unorganised sector.
The Left leaders stridently opposed the proposal to invest the pension fund in the stock market.
Their principal opposition was to the market-dependent returns. The government should step in to ensure guaranteed returns.
According to them, the pensioner should get 50 per cent of the average of the last three years' monthly payment as pension.
The government is reluctant to give such an assurance as it would defeat the purpose of the scheme - shifting it from statutory to voluntary contributions.
With the Left opposing the move, the government could not pass the legislation in the winter session of Parliament.
Though the CPI(M), at a time, was willing to bail out the government, strident opposition from the CITU and its junior Left partners CPI and the RSP put the bill in a limbo.
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