7th Pay Commission: Govt employees not to get arrears this financial year?

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Over 1 crore government employees and pensioners who are keenly waiting for the final outcome of the 7th Pay Commission recommendation will not be happy hearing this news.

There will be delay in getting the arrears as per 7th Pay Commission's recommendations.

As per a report in the Financial Express, Central government employees will not get the arrears which was touted to be effective from January this year.

Instead they will get it in the next financial year.

The Union Cabinet is all set to clear on Wednesday the final recommendation on salary hike as has been proposed by the 7th Pay Commission.

The pay panel had in November last year recommended 14.27 percent hike in basic pay at junior levels, the lowest in 70 years. The previous 6th Pay Commission had recommended a 20 percent hike which the government doubled while implementing it in 2008.

A secretaries' panel, headed Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha, has already vetted the 7th Pay Commission recommendation and its report is being translated into a note for Cabinet.

The government had in January set up the high-powered panel to process the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission which will have bearing on the remuneration of nearly 50 lakh central government employees and 58 lakh pensioners.

The Commission had recommended 23.55 percent overall hike in salaries, allowances and pension involving an additional burden of Rs 1.02 lakh crore or nearly 0.7 per cent of the GDP.

The entry level pay has been recommended to be raised to Rs 18,000 per month from current Rs 7,000 while the maximum pay, drawn by the Cabinet Secretary, has been fixed at Rs 2.5 lakh per month from current Rs 90,000.

The secretaries' panel may have recommended raising minimum entry level pay at Rs 23,500 a month and maximum salary of Rs 3.25 lakh.

While the Budget for 2016-17 fiscal did not provide an explicit provision for implementation of the 7th Pay Commission, the government had said the once-in-a-decade pay hike for government employees has been built in as interim allocation for different ministries.

Around Rs 70,000 crore has been provisioned for it, the official said.

With PTI Inputs