By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: A proposal to lower the retirement age of Central government employees is in the works. The idea is to retire employees who have completed 33 years of service or on reaching 60 years of age, whichever is earlier.

Suggested by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), the proposal is currently with the Department of Expenditure, which is looking into its financial implications, sources said.

At present, the retirement age in most of the services is 60 years, though it is 65 for professors in all Central universities as also for Central government doctors.

Officials said the proposal if implemented, could help address the problem of unemployment to an extent.

It could also reduce stagnation and expedite promotions of officials, but facilitate reducing government expenditure in the long run. If the plan gets the green light, it would be implemented in phases and involve all Central services.

Meanwhile, in order to streamline manpower planning and policies, the government has asked all the ministries to furnish a complete list of cadre-wise and grade-wise posts, total strength and vacancies in various departments by September 30.

The DoPT has also sought information on educational qualifications and training received by the officials.

The total number of sanctioned posts among all the grades was over 38 lakh as on March 1, 2018. Of them, 33.47 lakh posts belong to Grade C. About 31.18 lakh of the total of 38 lakh posts are occupied.

Curiously, Economic Survey 2018-19 had made a strong case for increasing the retirement age in the wake of the rising life expectancy rate in India.

It said given that life expectancy for both males and females in India is likely to continue rising, increasing the retirement age for both men and women going forward could be considered in line with the experience of other countries.

The retirement age of Central government officials were last increased from 58 years to 60 years in 1998. Many state governments have raised the retirement age from 60 to 62 years.