Assam adopts New Unified Pension scheme; Himanta says ‘debate between NPS-OPS ends here'

In a major policy shift affecting thousands of state government employees, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on October 6 announced that the state government has formally adopted the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) — a modified version of the National Pension System (NPS) recently introduced by the Government of India.

Speaking to reporters, Sarma explained that UPS aims to strike a balance between the existing NPS and the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), bringing substantial benefits to employees. 

“The Government of India has adopted the UPS scheme, which is a modified version of the NPS. In NPS, the government’s contribution was 10%, but under UPS, it will increase to 18.5%,” the Chief Minister said.

He added that the Assam government has decided to extend the same benefits to its state employees as those available to central government staff. “The state government has adopted the UPS scheme, which is similar to what will be entitled to the central government employees. Now the same scheme will be available for state government employees as well,” Sarma stated.

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According to the Chief Minister, existing employees will have a one-year window to decide whether they wish to remain under the NPS or switch to the UPS. “If someone adopts UPS, their contribution in NPS will be automatically transferred to the UPS account,” he clarified.

Sarma asserted that the introduction of the UPS will put an end to the long-standing debate between the NPS and OPS systems. “With the adoption of this scheme, the debate between NPS and OPS has finally come to an end,” he declared.

The move is expected to provide greater financial security to government employees while maintaining fiscal responsibility, aligning Assam’s pension system with the new national framework designed to blend stability with sustainability.