Firstly, the central government has approved a monthly pension of over 50% of the last drawn salary of the central government employees under the new pension scheme.
The central government will further raise the amount of withdrawals from 40% in Tier 2 cities to 60%. Also, going forward, employees will be able to withdraw funds once in every three years for meeting major expenses like children’s education or marriage, or for building a home.
Education expenses need huge funds to meet the rising demands in the education sector, while marriages too burn a whole in the pocket of a salaried employee. Building a home can make one spend his/her entire life’s savings given the cost of construction and labour.
As per Mishra, the government will announce these changes for the new pension scheme by third week of January 2019 as confirmed to Indian Public Service Employees Federation; however, in case the government fails to act on its promise then the federation will launch countrywide representations by the end of the month.
Besides the new pension scheme, there are other issues as per 7th Pay Commission that still need to addressed by the government. Minimum wages to contractual workers in government organizations, implementation of old pension system and raising the tax exemption slab to 7 lakhs have been long demanded by the central government employees.
Moreover, there are many who are still waiting to receive the benefits of emoluments after the 7th Pay Commission recommendations were approved by the centre. These employees have demanded the central government to release the pay outs shortly.
The Finance Ministry may deliver some clarity on these long pending woes of the central government employees in its Interim Budget 2019.