The Punjab Government has issued a notification stating that retired government employees will receive their pensions under the new amended act starting from July 1, 2024.
According to media reports, reforms and amendments have been made to the Punjab Civil Servants Act of 1974. Henceforth, government employees will be entitled to pensions and leave encashment under the new act.
According to the draft notification, provincial and federal government employees will be entitled to a pension based on 70% of the average pension received during the last 24 months of service before retirement.
For voluntary retirement, a government employee can apply for retirement after completing 25 years of service. However, the employee will be responsible for a 3% annual reduction in the overall pension for each full month between the retirement date and the date pension payments start. This reduction will be capped at 20%.
In the case of the armed forces and civil armed forces, voluntary retirement will only apply if retirement is requested or granted before the prescribed rank service.
The report indicates that under the new amended act, the government has created a pension law for retired employees similar to the EOBI formula used by the federal government. The pension period has also been reduced from lifelong to ten years.
How Will Pensions Be Provided Under the New Law?
The draft of the Punjab Civil Servants Reform Amendment Bill 2024 states that the “net pension calculated at the time of retirement will be called the baseline pension. Any increase in the pension will be given on the baseline pension, and each increase will be maintained as a separate amount until the federal government decides to review and approve additional pension benefits.”
The baseline pension will be reviewed by the Pay and Pension Committee every three years, provided that the current pensioners’ existing pensions at the time of the implementation of these amendments will be considered as the baseline pension.
A general family pension, after the death or disability of the spouse, will be admissible to the remaining family members for a maximum period of 10 years. In the case of disabled/special children of a pensioner, the general family pension will remain admissible for the lifetime of such children. For eligible children, the general family pension will be admissible for 10 years or until they reach the age of 21, whichever is later.
A special family pension, after the death or disability of the spouse/first recipient, will be admissible to the remaining family members for up to 25 years. For pension recipients, the rate of such pension will be increased to 50% for all ranks of the armed forces/civil armed forces.
In case of re-employment after retirement, where a government pensioner is re-employed/appointed to public service after the age of 60, whether on a permanent or temporary basis or by any method of employment, the pensioner will have the option to retain their pension or receive the salary of the said employment during the period of such employment. The annual increase in the pension will be given at 80% of the average inflation rate of the last two years.
