Fact Check: Is Government planning pension cuts due to COVID? Finance Ministry clarifies

The deadly Pandemic of COVID-19 has often given room for rumours, causing a panic-like situation among the citizens. The government has been fighting the rumours by disseminating the accurate information as and when rumours float or when queries are raised by the citizens. Government has even started a Press Information Bureau (PIB) Fact Check initiative to address the queries of the citizens and ward off rumours. In a similar incident, a query was raised by an Indian Air Force veteran citing a rumour of government pension cut.

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Claim:

A netizen in a tweet tagged Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman informing her about an alleged government circular doing rounds on social media and TV Channels which talks about 20 percent reduction in pension disbursement. The netizen added that it is creating panic among defence pensioners and asked her if the news is true.

Rating: False

The Ministry of Finance was quick to respond to the tweet, stating that the news is false and the government is not intending to for any such pensions reduction. While responding to the tweet, it also tagged the PIB fact check team for them to address the rumour.

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Minutes later the PIB Fact Check team took to Twitter to reiterate the finance minister calling the news as "false and baseless".

The fake news of the pension cut and ensuing welcome clarification comes at a time when the central government is grappling to ensure that employers abstain from layoffs or unpaid leave during the nationwide lockdown and the government authorities are issuing advisories and directions to companies in this regard.

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