CENTRAL GOVT EMPLOYEES FEAR DELAY IN IMPLEMENTATION OF PAY COMMISSION AWARD

New Delhi: Central government employees are being promised bigger pay hike from next year but implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission Award is making very slow and painful progress.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

Central government employees have expressed frustration at this, and are worried that the Seventh Pay Commission’s recommendations might not be implemented on time.

The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley promised in the Parliament on February 27 to implement the pay commission’s recommendations from next year and said “the Seventh Pay Commission impact may have to be absorbed in 2016-17.”

After receiving the Seventh Pay Commission report, the Finance Ministry has set up a cell in Expenditure Department headed by a Joint Secretary for a period of one year with effect from November 20, 2015 for implementation the recommendations of the Commission.

Giving one year time to implementation cell to process the the Seventh Pay Commission report to implement may hamper timely implementation as the cell would be placed it before the cabinet for its nod through the group of secretaries of revision pay panel report headed by cabinet secretary. which is also a time taking process.

It is also noted, the central government appointed senior IAS officer R K Chaturved as the head of the cell after one moth of its set up.

There are several states who have approached the Prime Minister’s Office, Cabinet Secretary and Niti Aayog, seeking more time in implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission’s report.

West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha governments suggested delay in implementation of Seventh Commission’s recommendation for central government employees will give them more time to equip themselves with resources to meet Seventh Pay Commission Award for their employees.

The Seventh Pay Commission had last month submitted its report to the Ministry of Finance. It had recommended a 23.55 per cent increase in salary, allowances and pension of government staff, involving an additional burden of Rs 1.02 lakh crore in 2016-17. This is less than the overall hike of the Sixth Central Pay Commission.

The Seventh Pay Commission recommendations will benefit 47 lakh central government employees and 52 lakh pensioners. It will lead to an additional outgo of Rs 73,650 crore from the Union Budget and Rs 28,450 crore from Railway Budget.

The new pay scales, subject to acceptance by the government, will come into effect from January 1, 2016.

The government constitutes the Pay Commission almost every 10 years to revise the pay scale of its employees and often these are adopted by states after some modifications.

The Sixth Pay Commission was implemented with effect from January 1, 2006, the fifth from January 1, 1996 and the fourth from January 1, 1986.

TST