7th Pay Commission: Government employees to get salary hike beyond panel recommendations, says report

7th Pay Commission: In what could very well be a massive positive development for the government employees, the government at the Centre may implement pay hike beyond the recommendations of the pay panel. This comes in the wake of a quite disappointing news for government staff from a senior Union minister when he said the government was not mulling any hike in pay over and above the fitment factor recommended by the pay panel, which was at 2.57 times.  This 7th Pay Commission update comes courtesy a report from The Sen Times, which said the government has reached a conclusion the salary hike will not have any material impact on inflation.  

The report, quoting Finance Ministry sources, also said that the government is ready to implement the pay hike from April taking into account the needs and priorities of stakeholders from employees’ unions leaders to government representatives. “Lower-level employees will benefit by pay hike,” the report by the website TKBSen added. However, the veracity of this news is certain and it should be noted that P Radhakrishnan, Minister of State for Finance, recently ruled out the possibility of any increase in pay with a hike in fitment factor for government employees.   

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Radhakrishnan said that the Modi government was not considering a hike in minimum pay and fitment factor beyond the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission. “The minimum pay of Rs 18,000 per month and fitment factor of 2.57 are based on the specific recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission in the light of the relevant factors taken into account by it. Therefore, no change therein is at present under consideration,” said MoS for Finance Radhakrishnan in his reply to the Upper House of Parliament.

The MoS for Finance was replying to a question by Samajwadi Party lawmaker Neeraj Shekhar in which he asked, “whether Government is actively contemplating to increase minimum pay from Rs 18,000 to Rs 21,000 and fitment factor from 2.57 to 3, in view of resentment among Central Government employees over historically lowest increase in pay by 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC).”

Meanwhile, Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan recently announced the formation of a committee to propose revision in the pay structure and allowances of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats employees. 

Mahajan  said that the 7th pay commission did not make recommendations about their salaries. Murli Manohar Joshi, estimates committee chairperson, will head the six-member panel. The other members of the panel are Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar, Public Accounts Committee Chairperson Mallikarjun Kharge, Standing Committee on Finance Chairperson M Veerappa Moily and Ram Gopal Yadav, the Speaker told the Lok Sabha.

The parliamentary committee has been constituted following a consultation between Rajya Sabha Chairperson M Venkaiah Naidu and her, Mahajan was quoted as saying by PTI. "It will advise the Rajya Sabha chairman and the speaker of Lok Sabha on the changes that are considered desirable in the structure of scales of pay, allowances, leave, pensionary benefits and other amenities to the officers and all categories of employees of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha secretariats," she said. 

The 7th Pay Commission had recommended a hike in basic pay of Central government employees that raised minimum pay from Rs 7,000 to Rs 18,000. However, Central government employees wanted a raise in minimum pay from Rs 18,000 to Rs 26,000 and fitment factor 3.68 times from 2.57 times. There had been reports that the government was mulling to raise minimum pay to Rs 21,000 and fitment factor to 3.00, but nothing concrete emerged on this.