A contributory pension scheme is under the active consideration of the State Government for new entrants joining the government service, Finance Minister K M Mani said here on Friday.
“The scheme is under the consideration of the Cabinet. The pension bills are set to exceed the employees’ salary in the coming days and, as such, contributory pension for future recruits are on the anvil,” he said.
Addressing a meet-thepress programme here, Mani said that the present employees would not be affected by the new scheme.
Only three states - Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura - had not opted the scheme, he said.
On the issue of redeploying surplus staff in government departments and other organisations, he said that a decision would be taken at the earliest.
“The cabinet has been discussing the matter. The number of excess staff is being worked out,’’ he said and added that the Finance Department was of the view that the excess staff should be redeployed instead of creating new posts.
On the recently-notified Chit Fund Act, Mani said that it was beneficial to the state. Earlier, chit firms that had registered in other states could do their business here.
But now, chit funds registered in the state could only do business here. On the other hand, the Centre has given the authority to the state to give exemptions if needed, he said and added that the KSFE could be exempted for doing other business.
With regard to the government’s initiative in providing adequate finance to various projects, Mani said that there was money for all mega projects.
“As of now, the the Finance Department has provided Rs 200 crore for the preliminary works of Kochi Metro. The government wil also provide Rs 800 crore for land acquisition for the Metro rail.
Amount has already been sanctioned for the land acquisition for Smart City,’’ he said. Mani said that Kerala had the best finance management in the country, which former Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee himself had lauded.
“The state’s revenue has registered a growth of 19.5 per cent when compared to the previous year,’’ he said.
On the welfare schemes for the poor, the Finance Minister said that the revenue from Karunya lottery had benefited about 1,100 poor patients.
The government was able to open new treasuries and also to strengthen the KSFE and KFC, he said.