MARGAO
Retired seafarers and widows of seamen in Goa may soon find themselves in troubled waters, as the government has yet to take a final call on making their pension scheme permanent. The existing scheme, currently running on a temporary basis, is scheduled to lapse in May.
Reintroduced in 2023 for a fixed tenure of three years, the scheme will expire unless the government issues a fresh notification. Although officials maintain that the NRI Affairs Department—the implementing agency—has sufficient funds to continue disbursing pensions, the scheme’s continuation depends entirely on formal government approval.
The uncertainty has triggered concern among beneficiaries, many of whom are now questioning why the government has delayed a decision on granting the scheme permanent status.
The demand for a permanent pension scheme has been raised multiple times in the Goa Legislative Assembly. Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas had earlier made a strong case for the scheme’s permanency, prompting Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to assure the House that efforts would be made in that direction.
More recently, Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenco once again highlighted the issue on the floor of the Assembly, seeking clarity on the status of the proposal.
The matter has also been taken up outside the Assembly. The Goan Seamen Association of India raised the issue on World Seafarers Day in June 2025, when its president, Frank Viegas, appealed to the Chief Minister to make the scheme permanent.
In response, the Chief Minister not only reiterated his commitment to make the pension scheme permanent, but even assured to effect a hike in the pension amount by Rs 1,000 if the seafarers support the BJP in the election.
Nine months down the lane the government is yet to issue a notification to make the pension scheme for seafarers a permanent one. In fact, seafarers and widows now appear a worried lot as the present scheme is set to lapse in May.
Inquiries have revealed that the office of NRI Affairs, the implementing agency, has enough funds at its disposal to implement the scheme even beyond May. However, no notification has been issued by the government to make the scheme permanent till date.
The pension scheme for retired seafarers and their widows was first introduced by the Manohar Parrikar-led government following the BJP’s return to power in 2012. However, the scheme lapsed in 2019.
As a result, retired seafarers and their widows went without pension support for two years until the government revived the scheme in 2021. It was subsequently extended in 2023, albeit for a limited period of three years.
Seamen-turned-hotelier and Cavelossim Sarpanch Dixon Vaz has questioned the rationale behind the temporary nature of the scheme. “I fail to understand why the government has not made the seafarers scheme permanent till date. I do not think there’s any other government scheme that is extended every five or three years”, Dixon lamented.
