Finmin: Employees to get higher allowances with retrospective effect 7th Pay Commission

Finmin: Employees to get higher allowances with retrospective effect 7th Pay Commission

New Delhi: A finance ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, today said that the Central government employees will get the higher allowances under the 7th pay commission recommendations with retrospective effect from January 1, 2016.

Responding to our reporter, the finance ministry official said the central government has to accept to implement the ‘Committee on Allowances’ recommendations without any hartals by the employees’ unions.

In the past, employees unions had to come on roads and go on strike to push for implementation of pay commission, but this time the government has to order the implementation of higher allowances soon as it is their right, he said.

Employees will get the benefits of the higher allowances with retrospective effect from January 2016, the official said, adding that the government is also working on formulating plan for paying arrears on this account.

The finance ministry will formulate roadmap for payment of arrears, he added.

The government in July last year had formed the ‘Committee on Allowances’, headed by Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa, for examination of the recommendations of 7th Pay Commission on allowances other than dearness allowance as the pay commission had recommended abolition of 51 allowances and subsuming 37 others out of 196 allowances.

The committee was initially given four months time to submit the report to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Later, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley extended the deadline for report submission to February 22, 2017.

The ‘Committee on Allowances is yet to submit its report. The committee is now in the process of finalising its report and the government would take a decision after the report is submitted. It may be taken more time to finalise its report.

Accordingly, the National Joint Council of Action (NJCA), which is a centralised union of several central government employees unions, has told cabinet secretary that the higher allowances must be given as arrears from January 2016.

The central government employees and pensioners got theirs arrears of basic pay and pension arising from implementation of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations in one go in August salaries and pension respectively.

The hike in basic pay and pension has been made effective from January 1, 2016 but the they are still awaiting for the higher allowances.

I have met the Cabinet Secretary on March 28 and have submitted our demands. In which the NJCA have clearly mentioned that whenever there is an implementation of 7th Pay Commission the government has to pay higher allowances effective from January 2016. If the government fails to do so then we will object it in an organised manner, Shiv Gopal Mishra, Convenor, NJCA, said.

TST