Thiruvananthapuram: The KSRTC director board will meet soon to take a decision on increasing the pension age of employees to 58 years. The move is aimed at finding a temporary solution to the financial crisis faced by the corporation.
It was earlier decided to hold the director board meeting during this week. However, after KSRTC chairman and managing director (CMD) A Hemachandran was shifted from the post, the meeting did not take place.
The new CMD, Tomin Thachankary, took charge on Monday. Now a decision on the retirement age will be taken by a meeting presided over by Thachankary. This may take a few days as Thachankary has to study the issue.
The policy decisions regarding KSRTC are taken by its director board. The government had earlier considered the option of raising the pension age to 60 years and reached an informal decision on it. However, this move attracted severe criticism, and the cabinet decided to leave the matter to the KSRTC.
Public sector undertakings have the authority to set the retirement age of their staff up to 58 years. The KSRTC was entrusted with the task of taking a decision on the pension age based on this rule. If it comes into effect, the amount required to pay pension will not witness an increase for two years. At present, KSRTC spends Rs 78 crore for pension payment.
For the next two years, in addition to the pension amount, other allowances like gratuity need not be paid. However, it is pointed out that money would have to be found for the increase in DA and grade pay, which would be more than the amount saved by increasing the retirement age. Another issue that may result from the move is that no fresh appointments will take place in KSRTC for the coming two years.
