The Tamil Nadu government has recently increased the maximum limit of death-cum-retirement gratuity (known as DCRG) from ₹20 lakh to ₹25 lakh. The revision is to take retrospective effect from January 1 this year.
The State government’s decision follows the Government of India’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 Government of India was to the effect of 25% with retrospective effect from January 1, 2024. However, it may be noted that though the revision is applicable to all staff, functionally only those who get a basic pay of at least ₹84,000 a month would get the retirement or death gratuity.
Only those who are in Pay Grade 11 or above would be able to receive the enhancement, while the majority of employees in old pension scheme would not be eligible to receive the enhancement.
Commenting on the revision, CPS Abolition Movement state coordinator P. Frederic Engels said that the Union government and all State governments in the country were giving gratuity to all their employees except Tamil Nadu, where those 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 pointed out and urged the Tamil Nadu government to provide gratuity. State government employees who joined service from April 1, 2003, are not eligible for gratuity, he said.
He also underlined that decision on pension need not affect gratuity, since those two were dealt with by two different Acts and rules – the Tamil Nadu Pension Rules, 1978 and the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972.
Published - September 13, 2024 06:34 pm IST
