New Delhi: The Seventh Pay Commission is likely to offer no change in retirement age of central government employees.
Seventh Pay Commission Secretary Meena Agarwal
The central government employees’ bodies had written to the Pay Commission asking it to consider the possibility of enhancing the retirement age of central government employees.
Sources said that the Pay Commission, after examining the issue, has kept the retirement age of Central government employees unchanged at 60 years.
At present, the retirement age of central government employees is 60 years and the central government employees’ bodies are pressing hard to enhance it to 62 years.
Those in the know have informed that the pay commission has kept the retirement age of Central government employees unchanged based on many considerations including the large financial implications involved in implementing such a decision.
An official with the Commission said that the Commission would like to keep the retirement age of Central government employees unchanged at 60 years. “If we lower the age limit, the pension burden will bust the government’s medium-term fiscal targets,” he had said.
Earlier, the media had rumored that the pay commission is planning to recommend the retirement age of Central government employees as the completion of 33 years of service, or at the age of 58, whichever comes first.
However, the pay commission denied the speculation through media, “we are not going to either recommend lowering or raising the retirement age. If we lower the age limit, the pension burden will bust the government’s medium-term fiscal targets,” the official with the Commission added.
The Seventh Pay Commission, headed by Justice A K Mathur, was appointed by the previous UPA government in February 2014 and its recommendations are scheduled to take effect from January 1, 2016.
Meena Agarwal is the secretary of the Commission. Other members are Vivek Rae, a retired IAS officer of 1978 batch and Rathin Roy, an economist.
The Seventh Pay Commission was appointed for 18 months, its terms was extended in August 2015 by four months till December 31, 2015.
The government constitutes the Pay Commission almost every 10 years to revise the pay scale of its employees and often these are adopted by states after some modifications.
As part of the exercise, the Commission holds discussions with various stakeholders, including organisations, federations, groups representing civil employees as well as Defence services.
The Sixth Pay Commission was implemented with effect from January 1, 2006, the fifth from January 1, 1996 and the fourth from January 1, 1986.
Source : http://www.tkbsen.in/
