The government has revised the pension for Reserve Bank of India (RBI) employees by 13.56 per cent. The last time RBI employee got a pension hike was in 2019.

This decision will benefit around 30,000 retired employees of the central bank, who have retired before November 1, 2017. The revised pension is to be effective from June 2023, according to a report in Mint quoting an internal report from RBI.

After the increment in revision, the basic pension of the employee, which was Rs 100, is being revised to a basic pension of Rs 163 from the month of June 2023.

In the last pension revision in 2019, RBI employees received a 10 per cent increase in pension plus dearness allowance (DA) according to a circular dated March 5, 2019 by the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance.

The revision is applicable for three categories of employees – those who retired prior to November 1, 2002, those who had retired between November 1, 2002 and October 31, 2007, and lastly, those who had retired between November 1, 2007 and October 31, 2012. This is the fourth time that pension has been hiked for RBI employees since the scheme was launched in 1990.

According to the report, the RBI has a separate pension fund, unlike other banks, where its employees’ contribution is collected when they choose the pension scheme. This works much similar with the central government pension scheme.

The pension revision came following a protest by the retired employees. As the pension has been increased for the retirees, the existing employees of the central bank are also looking for a pay hike in their salary.

As of March-end 2023, the Reserve Bank of India had a staff of around 13,815 people, including 6,858 Class I officers, 3,698 Class III officers, and 3,259 Class IV officers. The existing officers in RBI are waiting for a revision in pay for 2022-2027, and once, the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) determines the pay revision, the RBI officers would start to negotiate for their pay revision with the government.

The bank employees have received a 15 per cent hike in their salary after the IBA and the United Forum of Bank Unions (UBFU) had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in July 2020 in this connection.