Retirement and death gratuity increased by 25% for T.N. govt. staff

Retirement and death gratuity increased by 25% for T.N. govt. staff

The Hindu Bureau

CHENNAI 14.09.2024

The Tamil Nadu government recently increased the maximum limit of death-cum-retirement gratuity (known as DCRG) from ₹20 lakh to ₹25 lakh for its employees. The revision will take retrospective effect from January 1.

A G.O. was issued in this regard on September 6.

The move follows the Centre’s decision to increase the maximum limit of retirement gratuity and death gratuity from ₹20 lakh to ₹25 lakh, in line with the recommendations of the Seventh Central Pay Commission. The increase announced by the Centre was 25% with retrospective effect from January 1.

However, though the State’s revision is applicable to all staff, functionally, only those who get a basic pay of at least ₹81,000 a month would get the retirement or death gratuity, said CPS Abolition Movement State coordinator P. Frederic Engels. Only those who are in Pay Grade 11 or above would be able to receive the enhancement, while the majority of the employees in the old pension scheme would not be eligible, he added.

Commenting on the revision, Mr. Engels said that the Centre and all States except Tamil Nadu were giving gratuity to their employees. Here, those who are under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) do not get gratuity.

“About 38,000 people in the CPS have retired and about 7,000 of them are dead, but they have not received gratuity,” Mr. Engels said, and urged the State government to provide gratuity. Employees who joined service from April 1, 2003, were not eligible for gratuity, he said. He also underlined that decisions on pension need not affect gratuity, as they fell under different Acts and Rules – the Tamil Nadu Pension Rules, 1978 and the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972.