‘No salary cut for central govt employees’: Centre replies to ‘false’ reports

In a tweet posted on Monday afternoon, the finance ministry called such reports as false having “no basis whatsoever”.

The Ministry of Finance on Monday rubbished the reports of salary cut for any category of central government employees amid the coronavirus lockdown.

File photo: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. (PTI)

In a tweet posted on Monday afternoon, the ministry described such reports as false having “no basis whatsoever”.

“There is no proposal under consideration of Govt for any cut whatsoever in the existing salary of any category of central government employees. The reports in some section of media are false and have no basis whatsoever,” the tweet read.

“It is being reported that a 20% cut in Central Government Pensions is being planned. This news is FALSE. There will be no cut in pension disbursements. It is clarified that salaries and pensions will not be affected by Government Cash Management,” a tweet posted by the Ministry of Finance read,

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the government had previously announced that senior citizens, differently-abled and widows - who are drawing central government pension - will get three-month advance pension in the first week of April under the National Social Assistance Program (NSAP).

Under the National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP), the ministry said it has disbursed about ₹1,400 crore to around 2.82 crore old age persons, widows and differently-abled persons amid the coronavirus crisis, news agency PTI reported.

The government, last month, had put on hold payment of increased Dearness Allowance (DA) to its 50 lakh employees and 61 lakh pensioners till June 30, 2021, as it looks to curtail expenditure to meet the spending requirement to fight coronavirus pandemic.

In an office memorandum, ministry’s Department of Expenditure had said that no arrears of DA will be paid from January 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021.

(With inputs from PTI)