7th Pay Commission – Good news for central government employees! Pay hike to go beyond recommendations

In a good news for central government employees, the Narendra Modi government is considering increasing the salary of low-level officials, from matrix level 1 to 5 and go beyond the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission.

At present, the Central government employees are getting basic pay according to the fitment formula of 2.57 of the basic pay and if this big step is taken, it will come as a massive news for the central government employees. The official announcement regarding the hike can reportedly come around the month of April.

Even though the government could well revise the fitment factor three times, resulting in higher salaries for the employees, the hike won’t come into effect before the next fiscal year. The government reportedly plans to send the proposal to the Cabinet at the start of the next financial year.

Following the implementation of the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission, the basic pay of Central government employees went up from Rs 7,000 to Rs 18,000 per month based on the fitment factor of 2.57, and effective from January 1, 2016.

Initially, the 7th Pay Commission report had recommended a basic salary of Rs 18,000 but that led to protests from the government employees who demanded it to raise further to Rs 26,000.

Now, if the reports are to be believed, the employees falling in the pay matrix level 1 to 5 will get a salary hike after the proposal is sent to the Cabinet in the beginning of April for approval. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in 2016 had promised to hike pay of the central government employees beyond the suggestion of the 7th Pay Commission.

Meanwhile, there are reports suggesting that the government would not pay arrears on pay hike to the central government employees. This proposal will be reportedly placed before the Cabinet by FM Arun Jaitley in April.

Based on the report of Committee on Allowances (CoA) and the recommendation of E-CoS, the Cabinet had earlier approved the modifications in 34 allowances in its meeting held on 28th June 2017. All allowances are given effect from 1st July 2017. It will benefit 34 lakh civilian employees and 14 lakh defence personnel.

Source: FE