Kathmandu, November 12

The Public Service Commission — the constitutional body involved in selecting candidates for government services — has rejected Nepal Rastra Bank’s proposal to remove the 30-year service period provision from the NRB Employees’ Bylaws.

The PSC has asked NRB to put the issue on hold until the Federal Public Commission Act is implemented. The government is preparing the draft bill of the act.

NRB had sent its proposal to the PSC on September 25 citing the decision of its board of directors to remove the aforementioned provision related to retirement of employees mentioned in NRB Employees’ Bylaws.

“The main concern of PSC is to maintain uniformity regarding the retirement age for all government employees. Currently, government employees in different state bodies have different retirement ages ranging from 58 years to 63 years and the new act plans to create uniformity in retirement age,” said Laxmi Bilash Koirala, spokesperson

for PSC.

According to Koirala, NRB cannot make any changes to its employees’ bylaws on its own. “As per the constitutional provision, government entities have to consult the commission while taking decisions related to their staff,” he added.

Narayan Prasad Paudel, spokesperson for NRB, said at the moment the central bank had no comment to make on PSC’s decision and the issue would be discussed by the NRB board of directors’ meeting. “We have not received any letter regarding the issue from PSC so we cannot comment on it,” he said.

Earlier, board of directors of the central regulatory and monetary authority had decided to retain a single provision regarding retirement of its employees at the age of 58. As per the existing employees’ bylaws, NRB employees retire either on the basis of having reached 58 years of age or after completing 30 years of service, whichever comes first.

The central bank had proposed to remove the 30-year service period provision citing that a large number of high-ranking officials would retire in 2018 under this provision and it wanted to bring uniformity in retirement provision on par with civil servants working in other state bodies.

According to the central bank, altogether 233 officer-level — special class, first class, second class and third class — staffers will retire next year, as they will meet the 30-year service period provision a few years before they meet the compulsory retirement age. The number of employees who will retire next year is one-fourth of the total number of staffers of the central bank, said NRB officials.

The 30-year service period provision was introduced in the central bank as the NRB initiated the financial sector reform programmes in 2000. The aim was mainly to inject fresh blood in the central bank to strengthen its regulation and supervision capacity and to improve the quality of service in government banks — Rastriya Banijya Bank, Agricultural Development Bank and Nepal Bank.