Employees Taking VRS After 20 Years Can Get "Payout On Pro Rata Basis": Centre

Central government employees are entitled to "assured payout on pro rata basis" on opting for voluntary retirement after completion of service of 20 years or more under the recently-notified rules, the personnel ministry said on Tuesday.

The Department of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare has notified in the official gazette on September 2, the Central Civil Services (Implementation of the Unified Pension Scheme under the National Pension System) Rules, 2025 for regulating the service matters relating to benefits under the Unified Pension Scheme in respect of central government employees opting for UPS as an option under the NPS.

These rules inter alia provide options to UPS subscribers for voluntary retirement from service after completion of 20 years of service.

"The full assured payout under the Unified Pension Scheme is available only after completion of 25 years of qualifying service. However, on opting for VRS (voluntary retirement scheme) after completion of 20 years or more service, assured payout on a prorata basis, i.e., year of qualifying service divided by 25, of the assured payout shall be payable to the subscriber," the ministry said in a statement.

The payout shall be payable from the date of superannuation, it said.

"The other benefits, viz. the final withdrawal of 60 per cent of individual corpus and lump sum benefit of 1/10th of basic pay and dearness allowance for each six-monthly period of service, retirement gratuity, leave encashment, CGEGIS (central government employees group insurance scheme) benefits can be availed on retirement," the statement said.

Further, in case of the death of a subscriber after taking VRS but before the start of assured payout, the legally wedded spouse shall be granted family payout from the date of death of the subscriber, it said.

Welcoming this amendment, the national president of All India NPS employees federation, Manjeet Singh Patel, said it was a much-needed move for all central government employees, especially for paramilitary personnel who work in very difficult circumstances.

"This will help all the employees who are unable to serve the department after 20 years of completion of regular services," Patel said. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)