Tamil Nadu Finance Minister PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan told the Assembly that a decision could not be taken on the implementation of the old pension scheme as the state’s financial situation was dire adding that the government will go bankrupt if it gives everything away for free to everyone.
Replying to the General Discussion in the Assembly on the Revised Budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year the ‘MIT educated’ Finance Minister said:
“Following the principles of the Dravidian movement, the Chief Minister has said, ‘Everything for everyone’. I would like to change it a little in accordance with social and economic justice. Not everyone can be provided everything for free. Doing so would cause the government to go bankrupt. The rule of the last 10 years has been based on the principle that whoever can take anything how much ever they want for granted. This is contrary to our opinion. This needs to change.”
He said that in today’s situation, many of the powers for the state are not vested in the states and therefore there was a need to build better management with the powers the state has.
Tamil Nadu government employees were earlier paid a monthly pension of 50 per cent of their final salary along with various incentives after retirement. The pension scheme was modified by the previous AIADMK government made the scheme inapplicable to those who joined the service after April 1, 2003 and brought in a new pension scheme instead.
Now, 10% of the salary is taken as provident fund and an equal amount is deposited by the government. The total amount including these two amounts will be paid to the employees when the employees retire. This is also known as a contributory pension plan. If this is paid as a lump sum, it will be difficult to manage for the state and will end up being used by their heirs.
Government employees have demanded that the state goes back to the old practice of giving pension monthly. The DMK, which took up the issue, promised to implement the old pension scheme before coming to power. It has now come to power and the budget has also been tabled. But the DMK government has not made any announcement about the old pension scheme. This has led to frustration among government employees.
In light of this the Finance Minister has said “Many things cannot be decided immediately. The financial situation in Tamil Nadu is frightening. The financial situation is the reason for the inability to implement the old pension scheme. The old pension scheme will be brought back after the financial situation is right. ”
This is not the only promise that the DMK has failed to fulfilled. The DMK had campaigned across the state that it would cancel NEET exam for medical admissions the day Stalin swears in as Chief Minister. It also promised to decrease petrol and diesel prices by 5 and 4 rupees respectively. The DMK finds itself backtracking on its own promises.
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