7th Pay Commission: Central government employees have been waiting endlessly for some real news to come about their demands to raise their salaries by boosting the fitment factor to 3.68 times rather than the current 2.57 times that the report itself has recommended, but which has been dubbed as inadequate by staff. However, no such hint has been received so far. The problem with the entire issue is the whopping financial outgo that the central government will have to bear if the hike, as per demands, is granted. A number of states and yes, even the Indian Railways, have raised the issue of their revenues being affected. From down in Tamil Nadu to up there in Jammu And Kashmir, the issue of the impact of 7th pay commission outgo on sarkari revenues, that may drive deficits to new highs, have been raised time and again. However, the state of the economy is raising hopse as many positive things have been happening. 

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

These positive occurrences have raised the chances of 7th Pay Commission salary hikes coming sooner rather than later. The latest one is that of GST revenue collection. It has so transpired that goods and services tax (GST) has for the first time ever crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark. The exact sum was Rs 1,03,458 crore. This will bring great respite for government. And this figure is set to keep on rising over the months as the potential of GST to transform tax collections and pad up government revenue is massive. It has shaken off the earlier slow start and the confusion over filing of returns to now emerge as a very big positive. With its revenues rising, government will be much better placed to positively think about hiking pay of central government employees beyond Seventh pay commission recommendation.

This has been backed by another good news for 7th CPC salary hikes. This has been revealed just days ago. EPFO data suggests that jobs creation is happening and proof of that is in the fact that some 3.11 million people joined the social security fund between September 2017-February 2018 period. The This kind of job creation happens when the economy is growing well and a growing economy means Centre's revenues are increasing as well. 

Watch this Zee Business video

Finally, 7th Pay Commission salary hikes can depend to a large extent on one other event. A number of elections are on the way, from the ones in states to the general elections in 2019. The government will be hard-pressed to give in to demands of the government employees in this situation.