7th Pay Commission: Gazette notification for implementation of salary hike likely this week

Zee Media Bureau/Ajeet Kumar

New Delhi: The gazette notification for implementation of 7th Pay Commission recommendations is likely to be issued later this week.

The Union Cabinet had earlier cleared the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission headed by AK Mathur on June 29 in respect of the hike in basic pay and pension. However, the decision on 7th Pay Commission suggestions relating to allowances has been referred to a Committee headed by Finance Secretary.

The Committee will complete its work in a time bound manner and submit its reports within a period of 4 months. Till a final decision, all existing allowances will continue to be paid at the existing rates.

The gazette notification usually comes after 15 to 20 days of Cabinet approval. For implementation of 6th Pay Commission recommendations,  it was issued on 29th August 2008, after 16 days of Cabinet approval while the Union Cabinet had given its approval for implementation of the recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission on 14th August 2008.

The recommendations will benefit over 1 crore employees. This includes over 47 lakh central government employees and 53 lakh pensioners, of which 14 lakh employees and 18 lakh pensioners are from the defence forces.

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

The entry-level pay has been recommended to be raised to Rs 18,000 per month, from the current Rs 7,000, while the maximum pay, drawn by the Cabinet Secretary, has been fixed at Rs 2.5 lakh per month from the current Rs 90,000. Rate of annual increment has been retained at 3 percent.