7th Pay Commission: Confirmed, pay hike will come only after govt considers financial implication

New Delhi, July 30: There has been too much speculation on the 7th Pay Commission and it has been said in various sections that the government will announce a pay hike in August.

However, what Oneindia has learnt from sources is that none of the deliberations between the government and the Central Government employees have moved forward. There is no decision made to increase the basic minimum pay from Rs 18,000 to Rs 21,000. The CG employees have been demanding a pay hike of Rs 26,000, but the government feels that it is too steep.

Will 7th Pay Commission pay hike come in August?

While one could expect some announcement to this effect in August, the chances are more that the hike could be effective from November only. While deliberations continue, there are still several issues that have to be resolved. Going by the pace at which the deliberations are taking place, it may be difficult for the government to make any announcement in August. However sources tell OneIndia that there could be an assurance made on the lines of what Arun Jaitley had said.

7th Pay Commission meeting, the latest:

On July 17, a meeting of the Anomaly Committee meeting was held in New Delhi. The meeting was presided over by Chandramouli, the secretary of the Department of Personnel and Training. There were six items on the agenda:

• Removal of condition of 3% stipulated to grant bunching benefit
• Fixation of pay on promotion
• Removal of Anomaly in Pay Matrix
• Lesser Pay in higher level of Pay Matrix
• Bunching of steps in the revised pay structure
• Grant of GP 5400 to Sr Section Officer of Railways and AAOs of IA&AD and Organised Accounts (Civil Accounts, Postal Accounts and Defence Accounts)

Decisions taken at the DoPT meeting:

The suggestion of the Staff Side to fix the pay on promotion at the next higher stage after granting one increment was not accepted. After discussion it was agreed that Govt would address the issue on case by case basis. Those who are covered by the anomaly described under this item have been advised to make representation to Fin. Ministry directly. The staff side however insisted that the entire anomaly would he resolved if two increments are granted while on promotion/MACP. With regard to the removal of anomaly in the pay matrix, the government said it would consider how the matter only after assessing the financial implications. This means that the matter would be placed before the Union Finance Ministry and only after deliberations would a decision be taken. Hence it may be difficult to come to any conclusion by August.

Increase in DA could be expected:

Following the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission, government employees and pensioners can expect a salary increase. This is because the government is planning on modifying the index and base year for calculating dearness allowance. It may be recalled that the CG employees had got a hike by 2 per cent in the DA. Reports indicate that the labour ministry is working on a new series of consumer price index for industrial workers, which is used to determine dearness allowance (DA). The ministry has finalised the new CPI-IW with base year 2016 and it is proposed that the base be revised every six years to capture the changes in living expenses more quickly, a ET report said while quoting an official. The last revision in the base year was in 2006 by the 6th Pay Commission to 2001 from 1982. Once these changes come into affect it would be seen as a relief for CG employees who have been awaiting news on the 7th Pay Commission. After the new revision several new items such as cars and mobiles are being added to the list to reflect the change in lifestyle of industrial workers over the last one and half decades.

7th Pay Commission: New LTC rules:

While CG employees await for good news on the 7th Pay Commission, there is some good news on the travel front. The Government has approved a new rule which lets employees avail Leave Travel Concession when they travel abroad. The new rules are to be applied in the next few months. Five countries in Central Asia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have been included in the new policy.