Central government employees wait for pay hike: Meeting on 7th Pay Commission likely soon

The suspense for central government employees over recommendations to 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) could be over soon, as some union leaders may meet senior government officials later in the day, reports say. The meeting could offer an update on the recommendations related to allowance structure.

Even though similar reports of a meeting were doing the rounds on Tuesday, the Finance Ministry or any of the government officials did not provide any confirmation. 

The 7th pay commission's review committee on recommendations had submitted its report to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on April 27. Ever since the submission of the report, the central government employees have been eagerly waiting for an update from the Finance Ministry.

The Committee of Allowances was formed under Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa to examine the 7th pay commission recommendations on allowances, as passed by the Union Cabinet on June 26, 2016. 

This was in light of the extensive changes to the allowance structure recommended by the CPC and numerous representations received from central government employees and member of staff. The 7th CPC had recommended that 52 allowances be abolished altogether and 36 be subsumed in other allowances, out of a total of 196 allowances.

The changes effected under the 7th pay commission will benefit 47 lakh central government employees presently working across the country.

Recommendations of 7th pay commission propose that house rent allowance be paid at the rate of 24 per cent, 16 per cent and 8 per cent of the revised basic pay, determined on the basis of type of city.

The Union Cabinet had agreed to several proposals related to pay and pension, emphasising on the security personnel as it met on May 3. The Cabinet approved revision of pension to pre-2016 pensioner and family pensioners, benefitting 55 lakh former central government employees and army veterans.

The Cabinet also agreed to retain the percentage-based regime of disability pension for defence pensioners, instead of the slab-based criteria recommended in the 7th pay commission.

The benefits of the changes proposed in the pay commission will be available from January 1, the day of 7th CPC implementation. With the increase approved by the Cabinet, the annual pension bill alone of the Central Government is likely to be Rs 1,76,071 crores.

Source : http://www.businesstoday.in