It has been two years since the Supreme Court ruled that the EPFO ​​should provide a higher pension commensurate with the salary. However, only a small percentage of the eligible people have received the higher pension so far. The EPFO ​​has been adopting a policy of delaying the distribution of high pensions as much as possible, pointing out the ambiguity in determining the pension, shortage of staff and cases pending in various other courts. The Ministry of Labor has recently clarified that the pension will be calculated according to the pro rata method for those who have applied for higher pension. EPFO's justification for this is that the Supreme Court has not said that the pro rata method is illegal.

Cases in this regard are still pending in various courts. They have adopted the pro rata method which helps to minimize the higher pension before the final judgment in these cases. Employees interpret this as a move by the Centre to prevent higher pensions. The pension formula is the pensionable salary multiplied by the length of service and divided by 70. While the pensionable salary is the average of the last 60 months of salary, the pro rata method considers the service period before and after September 1, 2014 separately. Pension will be reduced by special consideration up to 2014 as the salary will be higher during the last period of service.

Another pitfall is in terms of weightage. Two years of weightage is given to those with more than twenty years of service. However, this is given in the period before 2014. This will further reduce the pension. A great deal of protest has been raised against the adoption of these methods. First of all the reality is that the pro rata method was not at issue in the Supreme Court case. EPFO is justifying that the Supreme Court has not said that the pro rate method is illegal by hiding this. The only relief for those who are waiting for their pension is the Central Provident Fund Commissioner's order to settle all pension applications by February 7.

The Commissioner's order is to pay the money by the 24th of this month in the applications that have been verified. The order also said that if the offices with less than five thousand applications do not dispose of the applications by the same date, action will be taken against the officials. The meeting of the Central Trust Board of EPFO ​​assessed that over one lakh applications were examined and 21,000 demand letters were sent last month. So far only 58,000 higher pension applications have been processed while lakhs of applicants are waiting across the country. EPFO must stop this anti-employee lethargy.