The Telangana government is in for more financial troubles as few thousands of employees in different cadres have retired or are set to retire from services during the current year, entailing expenditure for payment of substantial retirement benefits. This is in addition to the financial commitments it already has because of implementation of a spree of welfare programmes.

According to data available, the number of employees scheduled to retire in the current year, including those who retired in the first seven months, add up to 9,719. The number is slightly lower in 2027 and 2028 when 9,443 and 8,778 employees respectively will retire, but it will progressively increase thereafter crossing 10,000 employees a year for the next three years.

Delays in payment of retirement benefits

The government is already struggling to mobilise finances for payment of retirement benefits to the employees who attained the age of superannuation since the past three years. Complaints over the delays in payment of retirement benefits have been on the rise as those retired continue making rounds to the State Secretariat for clearance of their bills.

Categories of benefits after retirement

Officials said payment of retirement benefits entail huge expenditure on the government in that it has to pay commutation pension, gratuity, leave encashment and other benefits running into lakhs of rupees per employee.

Compounding problem

Coupled with the impact of the retirement benefits is the implementation of the recommendations of the new Pay Revision Commission (PRC) that are bound to add to the financial burden. The government is also obligated to pay six instalments of the dearness allowance (D.A.) kept pending since July 1, 2023.

It will have to factor in the recommendations of the pay commission for granting retirement benefits to employees retiring from service since the implementation of the previous PRC recommendations. “The government will have to calculate and pay the arrears of commutation pension, gratuity and other benefits, and fix pension based on the scales recommended by the commission,” a senior official told The Hindu.

The government is already saddled with ever increasing pension bills every passing year. This can be seen from the fact that it incurred expenditure of ₹7,309 crore on payment of pensions till June end of 2026-27 financial year

Published - August 11, 2026 05:39 pm IST