7th Pay Commission: Fatter allowances awaits cabinet approval

New Delhi: Fatter allowances under the 7th Pay Commission recommendations, which has been finalized by the Committee on Allowances headed by Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa, awaits the approval of the Union Cabinet.

It may come up in the Cabinet meetings in this month, say sources in Finance Ministry.

The Cabinet meetings in this month is understood to approve the proposal of Committee on Allowances, which has been constituted to examine the recommendations of 7th Pay Commission on allowances other than dearness allowance for cabinet nod as the pay commission had recommended abolition of 51 allowances and subsuming 37 others out of 196 allowances. So, there was resentment among employees over suggestions to scrap some allowances.

The Committee on Allowances is to recommend to stick with the 7th Pay Commission's recommendations on allowances, said the Finance Ministry sources on Wednesday.

The ‘Committee on Allowances has already given final touch to its report. The committee met up with the deadline of four months given to it by the cabinet to submit the report, the Finance Ministry sources added.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) also directed the Finance Ministry to obtain report from the Committee on Allowances and to prepare cabinet note in this regard.

Allowances contribute 63 percent in the pay hike recommendation. When the allowance is not taken into consideration it will mean fewer amounts because the allowance which the commission proposed is very substantial. Accordingly, the central government employees get a little hike in pay now, so employees are pressing hard to issue it very shortly, said sources in PMO.

The Finance Ministry sources told that the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will soon place higher allowances note before the Cabinet for approval after receiving the Committee on Allowances report.

Until cabinet approval on the Committee on Allowances report, allowances are to be paid according to the existing rates under the existing pay structure, says an earlier official statement issued by the finance ministry.

TST