No proposal to reduce central retirement age : Govt. assures in Rajya Sabha

No reduction in retirement age

There is no proposal under consideration of Government to reduce the retirement age from 60 to 58 years for its employees.  The retirement age for Central Government employees was revised from 58 to 60 years in 1997 on the basis of recommendations of the 5th Central Pay Commission.  The Centre’s total wages and salaries bill for its employees for the year 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 is Rs. 85,963.50 crore, Rs. 92,264.88 crore and Rs. 1,04,759.71 crore, respectively.  This was stated by the Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Dr. Jitendra Singh in a written reply to Sardar Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Dr. T Subbarami Reddy and Smt. Ambika Soni in Rajya Sabha, today.  Click here for the PIB Press Release To a query whether the Centre’s was aware of the Haryana government’s move to reduce the retirement age of its employees, Singh replied in affirmative saying, “The various state governments are having their own service conditions for their employees.” He also ruled out that there was any proposal to fix single retirement age limit policy in all state government’s and PSU in the country. “There is no such proposal at present. Age of retirement in state governments/PSUs is decided by respective state governments and board of PSUs etc depending on their requirements,” Singh said. The Minister also said that the total wage bill of central government employees in 2012-13 was Rs. 1.04 lakh crore whereas in 2011-12 it was Rs. 92,264.88 crore and in 2010-11 it was Rs. 85,963.50 crore. The details in the reply showed the highest wage bill was that of the railways which incurred Rs. 38,560 crore (almost 38 per cent of total wage bill) in 2012-13, Rs. 35,097.08 crore in 2011-12 and Rs. 33,580.41 crore in 2010-11. Followed by the railways, the home department had the next highest wage bill of Rs. 25,113.14 crore in 2012-13, Rs. 20,036.76 crore in 2011-12 and Rs. 17,809.16 crore in 2010-12, he said. The Minister said defence (civil) had the third highest wage bill with Rs. 14,502 crore incurred in 2012-13,Rs. 13,102.38 crore in 2011-12 and Rs. 12,127.92 crore in 2010-11. The cumulative wage bill for three departments was Rs. 78,175 crore which comes to about 78 per cent of the total wage bill of over Rs. one lakh crore incurred in 2012-13. Source : The Hindu (Business Line)