(1) Notwithstanding the provisions of section 5, a State employee who, within three months after the date of his becoming an employee, elects to contribute in accordance with this section and pays to the Board the contributions refunded to him from the State Fund upon his resignation from the State Public Service, shall be liable to make, and, from and including that date, shall be deemed to have been liable to make, contributions to the Fund for so many units of pension (including, where necessary, a fraction of a unit) as the Board determines will entitle that employee to benefits equivalent to those to which he would have been entitled if he had continued to contribute to the State Fund at the rate at which he was, immediately prior to that date, contributing to the State Fund, and his contributions for those units of pensions shall be at the same rate.
(2) Subject to this Act, a State employee referred to in subsection (1) shall for all purposes of this Act be deemed to be a contributor:
(a) in the case of a female employee who contributed to a State Fund for pension on retirement at the age of fifty - five years--at rates based on a retiring age of sixty years; and
(b) in any other case--at rates based on the same retiring age as the age at which the employee was, under the law of the State, entitled to retire on full pension benefit.
(4) Nothing in subsection (1) shall affect the obligation of any such State employee to contribute, in accordance with the provisions of this Act, for or in respect of units of pension in excess of those referred to in that subsection but if, at the date of his becoming an employee, he is required by section 20 to contribute for any additional units of pension, he shall not, if he has attained the age of forty years, contribute for or in respect of those units unless, within a period of six months after that date, he satisfies the Board that he is not suffering from any physical or mental defect likely to render him incapable of performing his duties before attaining the maximum age for retirement.