Bhutan’s National Assembly (lower house of the Parliament) rejected the proposal to increase the retirement age of civil servants to 60 years, reported Kuensel. Currently, most of the government employees retire at the age of 56.

The motion to increase the retirement age was moved by MP Ugyen Dorji, but it failed to garner majority votes in the house. While moving the motion, he said, “For a country whose average life expectancy has increased over the years and is now 71.58, setting the retirement age of civil servants to 56 is too early.”

The motion fell by just one vote as it received 17 votes each in its favor and 16 against. The speaker of the house refused to pass the motion. However, it created an uproar in the house.

Ugyen argued that by retiring this pool of talent at an early age, the state loses a significant professional and working capacity to the private sector of the country. 

However, during the discussion on the motion, most members acknowledged the need for a time to time review of the retirement age but they declined to agree on increasing the age to 60 year for all at this moment.