Old central govt retirees may not benefit from new Pay Commission: Experts
The parity between existing and new pensioners have been a bone of contention for a long time;
By : Sangeetha G
Update: 2025-03-28 07:46 GMT
Chennai: In a major blow to existing central government retirees, an amendment of the Finance bill may deprive old pensioners from the benefits of new Pay Commission recommendations, find experts.
With the amendment, the government, from now on, will decide whether old retirees should get the benefits from the recommendations of a new Pay Commission or not. Further, the Central government will determine the date from which Pay Commission recommendations will come into effect.
“The new amendment brought in the Finance Bill makes a distinction between old and new retirees and in effect the benefits of a certain Pay Commission recommendations will only be available for those retiring after the operationalization of the recommendations. This will deprive the old retirees from the benefits,” said N K Premachandran, Member of Parliament.
“…a distinction may be made or maintained amongst the pensioners, which may emanate from the accepted recommendations of the Central Pay Commissions, and in particular a distinction may be made on the basis of the date of retirement of a pensioner or the date of operationalization of an accepted recommendation of a Central Pay commission,” the Finance Bill amendment said.
The parity between existing and new pensioners have been a bone of contention for a long time. Some of the pensioners had approached the courts seeking parity. The Supreme Court last year in its judgement had “obliterated such distinction and proceeded on the premise that the government lacks authority for providing for such distinction of the Central Government pensioners based on their data of retirement”.
“…it has become necessary to deal with the interpretation of the courts and to address the issues relating to pensioners of the Central Government and expedient to retain the relevance of having such distinction by a validation legislation…,” the government said in the amendment.
The government also maintained that the norms, principles and method of pension revision, as per accepted recommendations of a particular Central Pay Commission, shall be effective from the date determined by the Centre.
With the amendment, the government, from now on, will decide whether old retirees should get the benefits from the recommendations of a new Pay Commission or not. Further, the Central government will determine the date from which Pay Commission recommendations will come into effect.
“The new amendment brought in the Finance Bill makes a distinction between old and new retirees and in effect the benefits of a certain Pay Commission recommendations will only be available for those retiring after the operationalization of the recommendations. This will deprive the old retirees from the benefits,” said N K Premachandran, Member of Parliament.
“…a distinction may be made or maintained amongst the pensioners, which may emanate from the accepted recommendations of the Central Pay Commissions, and in particular a distinction may be made on the basis of the date of retirement of a pensioner or the date of operationalization of an accepted recommendation of a Central Pay commission,” the Finance Bill amendment said.
The parity between existing and new pensioners have been a bone of contention for a long time. Some of the pensioners had approached the courts seeking parity. The Supreme Court last year in its judgement had “obliterated such distinction and proceeded on the premise that the government lacks authority for providing for such distinction of the Central Government pensioners based on their data of retirement”.
“…it has become necessary to deal with the interpretation of the courts and to address the issues relating to pensioners of the Central Government and expedient to retain the relevance of having such distinction by a validation legislation…,” the government said in the amendment.
The government also maintained that the norms, principles and method of pension revision, as per accepted recommendations of a particular Central Pay Commission, shall be effective from the date determined by the Centre.
“Earlier, the Pay Commission used to fix the date for the operationalization of the recommendations and now the Centre will fix the date,” said Premachandran.