• The government approved revision of pension of armed forces personnel under ‘One 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.

• Around 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 on the basis of average of minimum and maximum pension of defence forces retirees of calendar year 2018 in the same rank with the same length of service.

• The armed forces personnel retired up to June 30, 2019, excluding those retired pre-maturly (PMR) with effect from July 1, 2014, will be covered under this revision.

• More than 25.13 lakh (including over 4.52 lakh new beneficiaries) pensioners and family pensioners will be benefitted from the decision.

• The government had issued notifications in 2015 announcing the implementation of the OROP scheme. It had a provision for reviewing the pensions every five years.

What is One Rank One Pension (OROP)?

• OROP implies that uniform pension be paid to the defence forces personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, regardless of their date of retirement, to bridge the gap between the rates of pension of current and past pensioners at periodic intervals.

• This implies bridging the gap between the rate of pension of the current pensioners and the past pensioners, and also future enhancements in the rate of pension to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners. 

• In armed forces, equality in service has two components, namely, rank and length of service. The importance of rank is inherent in armed forces as it has been granted by the President of India and signifies command, control and responsibility in consonance with ethos of service. These ranks are even allowed to be retained by the individual concerned after his/her retirement.

• According to the Koshyari Committee report, two armed personnel in the same rank and equal length of service should get the same pension irrespective of date of retirement and any future enhancement in rates of pension be automatically passed on to the past pensioners.

• The Modi government issued a notification on November 7, 2015 to implement One Rank One Pension for the defence force personnel with effect from July 1, 2014.

The demand for OROP

The ‘One Rank One Pension’ had been considered in the past by various committees and bodies. Some of them are:

1) K.P. Singh Dev Committee (1984): The Committee recommended that the government should consider the issue of ‘One Rank One Pension’ particularly in the light of the principle which has been already established with respect to the pension of judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts.

2) Inter-Ministerial Committee: An Inter-Ministerial Committee was set up on February 27, 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 September 24, 2004 did not favour 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 January 1, 1996 for PBOR (Personnel Below Officer Rank).

3) Rajya Sabha Petition Committee: In 2011, the Rajya Sabha Petition Committee, headed by Bhagat Singh Koshyari, in its 142nd Report stated that the government should implement ‘One Rank One Pension’ in the defence forces across the board. This report is known as Koshyari Committee report.

• On February 17, 2014, Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced in his Budget Speech that the central government had in principle accepted OROP and it would be implemented prospectively from financial year 2014-15. The Finance Minister stated that an amount of Rs 500 crore has been transferred to the Defence Pension Account to meet the budgetary expense. However, OROP was not implemented at the time.

• On July 10, 2014 in his Budget Speech for the year 2014-2015, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley reaffirmed the Union government’s commitment to implement OROP and a further sum of Rs 1,000 crore was set apart to meet the requirement. 

• The government issued an order on November 7, 2015 to implement OROP. Armed Forces personnel retired up to June 30, 2014 were covered under this order.

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