Govt may rationalise employee allowances

Govt may rationalise employee allowances

JAIPUR: In tune with the Centre, Rajasthan government is also considering abolishing and subsuming some of the existing allowances and special pay given to government employees under the seventh pay commission.

Committee set up for the implementation of recommendations made by seventh pay commission has reviewed 202 allowances and nearly 40 types of special pays provisioned for the state employees. Based on their suggestions, government will take step to abolish few of the allowances and merging others.

According to the officials, Samant committee have assessed the need for continuation of each allowance, appropriateness of the set of people covered by the allowance and rationalization which involved clubbing of allowances with similar objectives.

At present Rajasthan government spend amount of Rs 40 crore as part of special pay allowances.

"There are strong possibilities that some of the allowance may be curtailed down. For the special pay, it has not changed for past many years and has remained very low. It may be enhanced based on the recommendations of the committee" added the official.

Union government was recommended to abolish total 53 allowances out of 197 and subsume 37 of them for the central government employees. In final approval, though, only 41 allowances were abolished. Similarly, states where recommendations of seventh pay have been implemented have proposed changes in allowances.

Committee headed by a retired bureaucrat DC Samant was formed in February to remove anomalies in salaries of employees while implementing the seventh Pay Commission. It was also mandated to make an estimate of financial burden on the exchequer and recommend new pay scales for the government employees.

However, committee requested for an extension of about one month, mentioning that report is still in process of completion and will end on July 5. It is however likely that tenure may further be increased for a month.

There are more than 7 lakh employees in the state and about 3 lakh pensioners. As per the estimate, government will have to spend between 9,000 to 10,000 crore in giving salaries and allowances under 7th pay commission if all recommendations are accepted.