7th Pay Commission: All you need to know about recent updates of 'salary increment'

New Delhi, April 2: There is good news in the offing for Central Government employees as Seventh Pay Commission will be implemented soon.

Reportedly within two to three months all the required things will be done so that increment will be handed over to government staff.

Here are all the latest developments about the pay commission

Final implementation

• Government will implement Pay commission most likely in July.
• Central Government employees will be paid six months arrears along with final increment.
• Notification for salary increment will be issued after State Assembly elections. Most likely it will be done in May.
• Union Cabinet may approve recommendations of the Pay Commission in the month of June.

Confusion over minimum basic salary

• Government is contemplating to give around 19 percent raise on the existing minimum basic salary.
• Reports say that Empowered Committee of Secretaries will suggest minimum pay Rs 20,000 in place of Rs 18,000 which was proposed earlier.
• Central government employees who are not happy with present proposal want minimum pay Rs 26,000

Army officers Vs civilian counterparts

• Army Officers are not happy with the present recommendations of Pay Commission and have aired their grievances many times to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar
• Defence forces have this feeling that if pay commission will be implemented in present form then it will position them much below their civilian counterparts in terms of salaries, facilities and status
• One of the main grudge that the armed forces have is with regard to risk-hardship matrix.
• These officers say that a soldier posted in Siachen Glacier, which has the highest degree of both risk and hardship, gets an allowance of Rs 31,500 per month.
• In contrast, a civilian bureaucrat from the All India Services draws 30 per cent of his salary as "hardship allowance" when posted anywhere outside the comfort zone.
• Under the new scale, a senior IAS official posted in a city in northeast will draw much more as "hardship allowance", compared to the Rs 31,500 per month drawn by military officers in Siachen.

Government assured Army men

• Recently Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said that concerns of Armed forces will be addressed
• In an interview, he said, "The concerns raised by the armed forces would be taken up by the commission".
• He also gave hint that the proposed recommendations of 7th Pay Commission could be revised as Government has not yet taken final decision over the same

Centre won't cut existing facilities

• Sources say that Government won't be making any changes in the existing advances and facilities, enjoyed by Central government employees.
• Pay commission had suggested abolition of many privileges and facilities including risk allowance, small family allowance, festival advance and motor cycle advance etc in its recommendations.

Govt ordered to give maximum benefits to staff

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently had ordered officials to speed up review process so that it could be implemented soon.
• Modi asked Committee of Secretaries to provide maximum benefits to central staff.
• Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha headed empowered committee which was appointed to overview whole process was told to accept pay commission's recommendations without diluting the same.