No, the Indian Government is NOT reducing employees’ pension by 30%

Social media is filled with several misleading and false narratives related to COVID-19. Amidst this we came across a post on social media claiming that government would slash employee pension to by 30%. A website link is attached along with the viral post which leads us to a news published by news.rediff.com. According to the news published by the website on 6^th April 2020 it claims that in order to tackle the adverse impact of the coronavirus pandemic in the country, there is a serious thinking among the political leadership to cut by 30% the pension paid by the government across the board — from the President of India to the humble office assistant (peon). The website also mentions that the government is thinking of scraping pension of former employees above 80 years of age.   

Facebook Post | Archive Link 

Website Link | Website Archive Link

Fact Check- 

We started our investigation by running a simple keyword search on Google to find relevant news reports about the government’s plan to slash employee pension upto 30% in order to divert funds towards managing health services and tackle the adverse impact of the coronavirus pandemic in the country. We were unable to find any credible media report, press release, order, notifications claiming the above.

Next, we found a clarification tweet by PIB Fact Check issued on 9^th April 2020 claiming that the viral news is Fake. The tweet clearly states that Media reports & rumours circulating on social media claiming that the Govt may reduce employees’ pension by 30% & terminate it for those above the age of 80, in the context of #COVIDー19, is FAKE. The Government is doing no such thing!

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However, we came across a news report by Economic Times published on 6th April 2020 which mentioned that “Cabinet reduces salaries of MPs by 30% for a year, no Member of Parliament Local Area Development scheme funds for 2 years”. In view of the emerging situation arising due to the rapid spread of coronavirus, the cabinet promulgated an ordinance to reduce the salaries, allowances and pensions of Members of Parliament (MPs) by 30 per cent for one year.

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Conclusion- Fact Crescendo found the above-mentioned post to be False. The Government is not reducing employee pension by 30% or terminating it for those above the age of 80, in the context to the Coronavirus situation.