The Hindu Business Line : Kerala not to raise retirement age

RAISING the retirement age of State Government employees is not an option the State Government is considering, the Finance Minister, Mr Vakkom Purushothaman, told the State Assembly on Wednesday.

Replying to questions, the Finance Minister said the Government was open to the issue of raising the age limit for joining service from 35.

The retirement age of 55 might well be `a bit premature' considering the raised level of awareness and worldly wisdom an employee may have achieved by that time and which the Government could continue to tap for its own good.

But this was not practicable in Kerala's context marked by high incidence of unemployment among the youth. The number of employees going into retirement every year in the State ranged from 18,000 to 20,000.

MLA fund raised: The Finance Minister proposed a hike in the MLA fund from Rs 60 lakh a year as announced in the Budget to Rs 75 lakh.

The Budget announcement itself represented a hike by Rs 10 lakh when the annual entitlement was raised to Rs 60 lakh.

Winding up the three-day general discussion on the Budget 2005-06, Mr Purushothaman rejected the Opposition demand to reverse the proposal to restore stamp duty to the raised levels of previous years. This is because the Government had suffered a revenue loss of Rs 200 crore on account of a decision to reduce stamp duty last year.

This gesture had not elicited the kind of response the Government was banking on, leading to loss in revenue.

On the newly introduced luxury tax on marriage halls, the Minister said the tax would become applicable only in cases where the daily rent exceeded the threshold limit of Rs 5,000. The Budget had originally fixed this limit as Rs 3,000.

A sum of Rs 2 crore each would be earmarked for the development of Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode cities. Another Rs 2 crore would be set apart for constructing 40 old-age homes.

Candles, smokeless ovens, life-saving medicines and products generated out of the Kudumbashree poverty eradication programme would be exempted from the purview of sales tax when the Value Added Tax regime comes into effect from April 1, the Minister said.

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