One Rank One Pension(OROP): Union Cabinet approves revision of pension of Armed Forces Pensioners/family pensioners under One Rank One Pension

Source: The post is based on the article “Union Cabinet approves revision of pension of Armed Forces Pensioners/family pensioners under One Rank One Pension ” published in PIB on 24th December 2022

What is the News?

The Union Cabinet has approved a pending pension revision for pensioners from the armed forces and their families under the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme which has been delayed since July 2019.

What is One Rank One Pension(OROP)?

OROP implies a uniform pension for defence personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, regardless of their date of retirement.

Why was there a need for OROP?

In view of the need of the defence forces to maintain physical fitness, efficiency and effectiveness, personnel retire at an early age compared to other agencies of the government. 

A sepoy in the army and equivalent rank in navy and air force retire after 17-19 years of service and officers retire before attaining the age of 60 years.

Before the implementation of OROP, the computation of pension was linked to the pay drawn by the personnel in a particular pay scale at the time of his/her retirement. 

Pay scales were revised to the higher side generally on the recommendation of Pay Commissions. As such, the personnel retiring after the revision of the pay scales got more pension than those who had already retired. Hence, the gap remained in the pension of the past and present retirees.

OROP bridges this gap between the rates of pension of current and past pensioners at periodic intervals.

The OROP scheme was implemented with retrospective effect from July 1st, 2014 with 2013 as the base year.

What has happened now?

The OROP scheme envisages revision of pension once every five years. The re-fixation of pension was to be done in the year 2019, but the matter was pending in court at the time.

Now the OROP has been revised with effect from July 1, 2019 and the arrears will be paid for the period July 2019 to June 2022.