7th Pay Commission: Maharashtra government to hike salary of nearly 20 lakh employees

New Delhi: In what could bring cheers to lakhs of state government employees, the Maharashtra government has decided to implement the recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission.

The decision will benefit close to 20 lakh government employees in the state.

The State cabinet has given approval for the implementation of 7th CPC recommendations for which the state treasury will have to bear an additional burden of Rs 20,000 crore.

Earlier, in November Minister of State for Finance Deepak Kesarkar made this announcement in the Legislative Council that arrears of Rs 10,000 crore would be paid retrospectively from 2016 over a five-week period, while the dearness allowance would be paid retrospectively for the last 14 months.

The Union Cabinet had in June last year approved recommendations of the CPC with 34 modifications, which will mean an additional annual burden of Rs 30,748 crore on the exchequer.

The new scales of pay provide for entry-level basic pay going up from Rs 7,000 per month to Rs 18,000, while at the highest level i.e. Secretary, it would go up from Rs 90,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh. For Class 1 officers, the starting salary will be Rs 56,100.

The recommendations 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.