The CPM politburo, which meets on Tuesday, will discuss threadbare the Pension Funds Bill and the EPF rate cut, on which the party has issued notice for a Calling Attention motion in the Lok Sabha.Party sources said the party central committee, which will meet on Wednesday and Thursday, is likely to give the green signal to the party’s stand to maintain the EPF rate at 9.5 per cent and to demand budgetary support for the deficit in paying the interest rate. On the Pension Funds issue, the central committee will discuss the amendments proposed in the government’s PFRDA bill. However, the Left parties are adamant that the bill is unacceptable even in altered form, and have decided to vote against it if introduced in Parliament. That is a stand that the central committee is almost certain to endorse.The Left parties’ principal opposition to the PFRDA Bill has been that there cannot be a private pension fund manager and that pension funds cannot be linked to the stock market, as has been proposed in the bill.Another contentious issue that is likely to come up before the central committee is that of strikes in the IT sector, which had been raised by West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee after the September 29 all-India trade union strike which affected IT workers in Kolkata.However, at the last CPM central committee meeting in Delhi in October, a consensus eluded the party primarily due to opposition from CITU. It was then decided that a report would be prepared and discussed by the central committee.
