There is no proposal to increase the retirement age of central government employees from the existing 60 years to 62 years, minister of state for personnel V Narayanasamy told Parliament.
“As per rules, every government servant shall retire on attaining the age of 60 years,” the minister said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on Thursday. “At present, there is no proposal to increase the age of retirement of government employees,” he added.
However, when asked later by TOI whether such a proposal could be considered ahead of Lok Sabha polls, especially following the recent decision of the Chhattisgarh government to extend retirement age for state employees to 62 years, Narayanasamy said he “cannot speak for the future”.
There are about 50 lakh central government employees working in various departments, including the railways, across the country.
There has been speculation lately about the Centre’s plans to raise the superannuation age for its employees as part of a move to defer payouts in the form of pensions and other payments to check the fiscal deficit.
The Chhattisgarh government, which raised the retirement age of state employees vide a Cabinet decision on Tuesday, has told TOI that it would save Rs 600 crore by deferring payment of pension liabilities to those retiring henceforth, by two year.
The Centre had in 1998 raised the retirement age of its employees to 60 from 58 years.
Source : The Times of India
