The Sindh Cabinet approved the lowering of the minimum age for the retirement of the government employees in its new pension reforms on Tuesday.
A meeting of the Cabinet was held under the chairpersonship of Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah to discuss the Pension Rules, 1963, and was attended by all the provincial ministers and concerned secretaries.
The attendees approved the various recommendations under which a provincial government employee can retire at the age of 55 years or after completing 25 years of service.
It was also decided that the rule that allows the children of a deceased employee to collect their pension up to the age of 24 years of age must be amended, and the attendees agreed to lower the age limit to 21 years.
The Chief Minister approved the pension policy and said that the new rules would resolve the issues that pensioners face, and will ensure the timely release of payments.
The provincial government expects to save Rs. 433.3 billion annually in pension bills by implementing the new rules. The reforms are part of its efforts to reduce its ballooning pension expenditures.
It had issued a set of reforms last year that proposed a ban on early retirements and recommended that retirement should only be allowed after a minimum of 25 years of service and 55 years of age.
Discussing the matter, CM Shah had said that the salaries of 493,182 employees cost the provincial government Rs. 23.9 billion every month while the monthly pension bill is Rs. 13.3 billion. “We have to bring reforms to cut the pension bill,” he had said, and added that the pension bill will exceed that of salaries in the next decade if appropriate measures are not taken.
