7th Pay Commission Latest News: Central government employees face this setback, Centre makes this denial statement

7th Pay Commission: Taking the central government employees' demand to the government, two Rajya Sabha members Ravi Prakash Verma and Neeraj Shekhar have asked the finance ministry whether there is any proposal to increase the fitment factor under 7th pay commission to 2.81 from 2.57? Earlier, they had asked in August whether there was any proposal to hike it to 3.68 times.

7th Pay Commission: Replying to the questions in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Finance P Radhakrishnan said that there is no such proposal. "The fitment factor for the purpose of fixation of pay in the revised pay structure based on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission is 2.57 which is uniformly applicable to all categories of employees. As the same is based on the specific and considered recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission, no change therein is envisaged," he said.

7th Pay Commission: These two members also asked whether the government would increase the HRA from 24 per cent to 30 per cent of basic salary as it was under 6th CPC in view of non-availability of rented accommodations within 24 per cent of basic salary in metro cities?

7th Pay Commission: Replying to this, the MoS said that the HRA had already been revised vide a resolution dated July 6, 2017. "The Government vide Resolution dated 6th July, 2017 decided that HRA shall be revised to 27%, 18% and 9% of Basic Pay in X, Y and Z cities when Dearness Allowance (DA) crosses 25% and further to 30%, 20% and 10% of Basic Pay in X,Y and Z cities when DA crosses 50%," he said.

7th pay Commission: This is the second time that the Centre has officially rejected demands for a 7th pay commission based hike. This is despite FM Arun Jaitley having said that the Centre will look at central government employees demand for a pay hike over and above the recommendations of the 7th CPC report favourably.