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 rumoured 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.
