Enhancing the retirement age from 58 to 61 was one of the important election promises which TRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao had made during the course of electioneering in the recent Assembly polls. However, it turns out that the government would first like to act on two important steps before it undertakes the implementation of revision of the age of superannuation. The first of these is the release of interim relief (IR), which is due from August 2018. The second is the implementation of the pay revision commission report for government employees. The PRC headed by retired IAS official CR Biswal was constituted six months ago to revise the pay structure for government employees from Group 1 down to Group 4. The government's financial burden for the next few years will hinge on the recommendations of this report.

The TRS government had to postpone the release of interim release in view of the fact that Assembly elections had been advanced though it is aware of the financial implications to the tune of Rs 300 crore at 1% IR. Proportionately, IR at 10% would impose a burden of Rs 3000 crore on the state treasury.

Similarly, when the retirement age is enhanced, it would inevitably impose additional financial burden on the state also because the government proposes to undertake a statewide recruitment drive across all departments.

For the government to fulfill its poll promise of revision of the age of superannuation and take up the release of IR and recruitment at the same time, could amount to biting more than it can chew. Therefore it remains to be seen as to how the TRS would like to address this particular issue on a priority.

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