KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 21): A group of pensioners is opposing the Public Services Department (PSD) and the federal government’s application to stay a High Court decision that has ordered the government to pay all pensioners arrears owed to them from a pension increase allowed by High Court based on their final salaries according to the PSD’s 2016 circular, effective from January 2022.
The government is asking for the stay on the payments, as it pursues an appeal at the Court of Appeal on the High Court’s pension increase decision.
Pensioner Aminah Ahmad, representing the group in an affidavit objecting to the government’s stay application, said that it should not be allowed, because the government has not shown that there are no funds available to settle its payment obligations.
The government’s main argument for a stay on the payments was the financial implications of RM1.7 billion having to be paid out from its coffers.
However, Aminah said the sum given by the government of RM1.7 billion is just a figurative sum, because the government did not show how it came to this sum.
“I further state that the amount stated as RM1.7 billion is raised as a spectre only, without actual computation, with a view to cast fear on the part of the court. I challenge the methodology employed in arriving at this amount, which the Respondent (the government) has not shown.
“I state that on this score, this averment by the Respondent has not been made in good faith, and this honourable court must take notice of this,” Aminah said.
She also cited Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in her argument. “On the contrary, I state that this court ought to take judicial notice that the government, through ministers, including the prime minister, has repeatedly stated that the government is not impecunious. Rather, its financial position is at all times strong.”
Aminah also said that the Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) has a total fund size amounting to RM158.1 billion as of 2022, and that this was a matter of public record, and that money has only grown since then.
She said that granting the stay would deprive the pensioners of what is rightfully theirs.
“Conversely, a stay will deprive [pensioners] of the fruits of litigation,” she said, adding that there were no special circumstances for the court to allow the government’s application to stay the Jan 16 High Court ruling.
The court will decide on whether a stay is given or not, and the hearing of the stay application will be heard on Monday, Feb 24 at the High Court, here.
Besides the stay, the government has also filed an earlier notice of appeal on Jan 23, over High Court judge Datuk Amarjeet Singh Serjit Singh's decision, which allowed Aminah and other pensioners to receive the increase in pension. The court ordered the PSD and the government to pay the arrears within three months of January 16.
Aminah, a former Wisma Putra staff who retired in 2002, brought the action in 2017, naming the government and the PSD DG as respondents.
She claimed that the PAA 2013 amendment, which had brought about a flat rate of 2% increment, was unconstitutional when compared to Pension Adjustment Act 2013 (PAA) to the PAA 1980, which was more favourable, since the pension of government retirees was revised based on the prevailing salary of incumbent civil servants at that grade.
The High Court’s decision is expected to affect an estimated 531,976 pensioners.