Incidentally, the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) has figured as a distinguished ballot promise within the Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat Assembly elections, even triggering debates past the political enviornment. Two Congress-ruled states – Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh – have already determined to implement the OPS, whereas the celebration has promised to revive it in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh if it involves energy.

According to knowledge out there with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), the Centre’s complete Committed Expenditure was Rs 9.78 lakh crore throughout 2019-20, which included an expenditure of Rs 1.39 lakh crore on ‘salary and wages’, Rs 1.83 lakh crore on pensions and Rs 6.55 lakh crore on ‘interest payments and servicing of debts’.

The Centre’s complete Committed Expenditure accounted for 37 per cent of its complete income expenditure of Rs 26.15 lakh crore in 2019-20.

“The Committed Expenditure in respect of the Union Government consists of 67 per cent on Interest Payment and Servicing of Debt. The remaining 19 per cent and 14 per cent expenditure constituted the expenditure on Pensions and Salary and Wages respectively. It is apparent that expenditure on pensions is more than the expenditure on salaries and wages,” reads the CAG report titled ‘Union and State Finances at A Glance’ for 2019-20.

According to the report, the Centre’s pension invoice was 132 per cent of its expenditure on wage and wages in 2019-20, the final 12 months for which comparable knowledge for the Centre and states is offered. This was simply forward of the Covid-19 outbreak in India in 2020.

The pension invoice additionally exceeded the wage and wages expenditure throughout three states – Gujarat, Karnataka and West Bengal – in 2019-20.

In Gujarat, the pension invoice (Rs 17,663 crore) was 159 per cent of the expenditure on wage and wages (Rs 11,126 crore). Similarly, Karnataka’s pension invoice (Rs 18,404 crore) was 126 per cent of the state’s expenditure on wage and wages (Rs 14,573 crore). And for West Bengal, the pension invoice (Rs 17,462 crore) was 103 per cent of the expenditure on wage and wages (Rs 16,915 crore).

The knowledge reveals that the mixed pension invoice of 30 states and Union Territories, for which comparable knowledge is offered, stood at Rs 3.38 lakh crore in 2019-20, which was 61.82 per cent of their mixed expenditure (Rs 5.47 lakh crore) on wage and wages. Across 5 states – Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Odisha – the pension invoice accounted for over two-third of their expenditure on wage and wages.

The expenditure on pension is without doubt one of the key parts of the federal government’s Committed Expenditure. The different two are the expenditure on wage and wages and curiosity fee and servicing of debt. If the Committed Expenditure is increased, it implies that the federal government has lesser flexibility to find out the aim for which income expenditure is to be incurred.

During 2019-20, the full Committed Expenditure of all states stood at Rs 12.38 lakh crore (Rs 5.47 lakh crore on wage and wages; Rs 3.52 lakh crore on curiosity fee and servicing of debt; and Rs 3.38 lakh crore on pension), which was virtually half – 45 per cent – of their mixed income expenditure of Rs 27.41 lakh crore.

The expenditure on pension in Rajasthan – the place the Congress-led state authorities has determined to implement OPS – was Rs 20,761 crore in 2019-20. This is nearly 42.7 per cent of its expenditure (Rs 48,577 crore) on wage and wages. Similarly, Chhattisgarh’s pension invoice (Rs 6,638 crore) was 30.62 per cent of the state’s wage and wage expenditure (Rs 21,672 crore).

However, in Himachal Pradesh, the place elections lately concluded, the pension invoice (Rs 5,490 crore) was 47 per cent of the wage and wage expenditure of Rs 11,477crore.

The newest version of the Handbook of Statistics on Indian states, launched by Reserve Bank of India on November 19, reveals that the mixed pension expenditure of all states and UTs has doubled to Rs 3.45 lakh crore in 2019-20 from Rs 1.63 lakh crore in 2013-14. In truth, the pension expenditure additional elevated to Rs 3.68 lakh crore in 2020-21 (revised estimate) and was budgeted at the next at Rs 4.06 lakh crore for 2021-22 (BE).