Central government employees pay hike: Update on 7th Pay Commission likely today

The meeting on updates of seventh pay commission allowances is likely to take place today between Union leaders of central government officials and top government officials, according to a NDTV report.

The seventh pay commission was constituted in February 2014 to review the principles and structure of emoluments of all central government civilian employees including defence forces and submitted its report on 19 November 2015.

Government employees protested the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission, following which the Narendra Modi government formed a committee under Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa to review the suggestions.

The Committee on Allowances was constituted in July and after an extended deadline was asked to submit its report to the government by February 22, 2017.

It again missed its deadline and submitted its report to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on April 27.

The pay commission had recommended abolition of or subsuming of allowances like acting, assisting cashier, cycle, condiment, flying squad, haircutting, rajbhasha, rajdhani, robe, shoe, shorthand, soap, spectacle, uniform, vigilance and washing.

The Committee was constituted in June last year after the government implemented the recommendations of the Pay Commission.

The Seventh Pay Commission had recommended abolishing 53 of the 196 allowances, and subsuming 36 other allowances. It also recommended slashing the House Rent Allowance (HRA)--for metros, commission recommended bringing down the HRA from 30 per cent to 24 per cent.

The Seventh  Pay Commission had recommended the rate of House Rent Allowance (HRA) be kept at 24 percent, 16 percent and 8 percent of the Basic Pay for Class X, Y and Z cities respectively.

If the government implements pay commission recommendations on allowances, then as per estimates the cost to the exchequer will be Rs 29,300 crore.