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No decision on retirement age, says Achuthanandan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: No discussions have been held to raise the retirement age of State government employees, Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan told the Assembly on Thursday.

Replying to questions, Mr. Achuthanandan said Vijay Kelkar, chairman of the 13th Finance Commission, had expressed the opinion that by raising the retirement age, the government could defer payment of retirement benefits to the employees. He said the heads of government departments and public sector undertakings were recruiting employees on daily wages and contract basis. After the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC) filled the vacancies, the services of such employees would be terminated. The government had no plans to extend the validity period of PSC rank-lists, he said. The government-appointed Public Expenditure Review Committee had recently recommended raising the superannuation age of government employees and teachers to 58 and 60 in phases. The committee report pointed out that by raising the pension age, the government could channelise part of the revenue expenditure for other productive purposes. Now, nearly 90 per cent of the State revenue expenditure is spent on salary and pension. It noted that even for healthy and experienced employees who retired at 55 years, the government had to pay pension for the next 25 to 30 years without any work being done.

Stating it was not a good tendency to receive pension without doing any work , the committee had observed that 90 per cent of the salary amount would be required for providing pension.

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