Cabinet may increase Pay further - Fusion - WeRIndia

The cabinet might approve the higher increase in basic pay than the nearly 15 per cent recommended by the 7th Pay Commission. This move would increase the base pay for more than 1 crore government employees and pensioners.

Last year, the pay panel recommended 14.27 per cent increase in basic pay at junior levels. This is the lowest in 70 years. The recommendation made by the previous 6th Pay Commission was a 20 per cent hike. The government even doubled this hike while implementing it in 2008.

After the proposed increase was considered, the hike in remunerations comes to 23.55 per cent. A senior official stated that the fiscal position this year has been tight and the government may improve upon the Pay Commission recommendation for basic pay to 18 per cent or event to 20 per cent.

He said that the report from 7th Pay Commission will be effective from January 1. The cabinet will also decide if the arrears for the six months will be paid in one go or in installments he added.

The recommendation from the 7th pay Commission was already reviewed by a secretaries’ panel headed Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha. The report from the panel is being translated into a note for Cabinet.

The high powered panel was setup by the government to process the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission. The decision taken will be effecting the pay of nearly 50 lakh central government employees and 58 lakh pensioners.

For now, the recommended hike by the Commission is 23.55 per cent overall in salaries, allowances and pension. The increase would put a burden of Rs 1.02 lakh crore or nearly 0.7 per cent of the GDP. They recommended the entry level pay to be increased to Rs 18,000 per month from the current Rs 7,000. The maximum pay has been fixed at Rs 2.5 lakh per month from the current Rs 90,000.

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