Eighth Pay Commission
8th Pay Commission: A very important news is coming for lakhs of central government employees and pensioners. If you too have been waiting for the announcement of the Eighth Pay Commission for a long time, then now the movement at the ground level has intensified. Today on 13th May and tomorrow on 14th May, the team of the Eighth Pay Commission in Delhi has started direct talks with all the employee organizations associated with the Defense Ministry and Railway Ministry. The purpose of these meetings is not only to listen to the demands of the employees, but also to resolve the issues related to the new salary structure, allowances and pension. Only through this conversation will a blueprint be prepared, on the basis of which the Commission will submit suggestions to the government to increase the salary.
Proposal to increase minimum salary to Rs 65 thousand
employee organizations commission Many demands have been placed before it. The most prominent among these is to directly increase the minimum basic pay from the current Rs 18,000 to Rs 65,000. Pensioners and employee bodies of Maharashtra have argued that this huge increase under the ‘Ackroyd formula’ has become the need of the hour in view of rising inflation. He clearly believes that the current salary structure is proving to be dwarf in front of today’s economic challenges. Apart from this, a strong proposal has also been made to increase the fitment factor from 2.57 to 3.8. This will not only lead to a solid increase in monthly income, but will also strengthen the purchasing power of the employees.
New formula of dearness allowance
Employee unions say that the current Dearness Allowance (DA) system is lagging behind in beating the real inflation. Therefore, the demand is being raised that there should be a guaranteed increase of at least 4 percent in the revision done every six months. A major administrative change has also been suggested that as soon as DA touches the 50 percent level, it should be automatically merged into the basic pay. If this happens, the basic pay of the employees will increase, which will directly benefit them in future pension calculations along with their other allowances.
Request to increase increment rate
Employees are also very vocal about the annual rate of salary increase. At present the annual increment is 3 percent, which is being advocated to be increased to 5 percent. There is also a technical demand that when the revised basic pay is calculated, it should be rounded off to the next Rs 1000. This will make the salary structure more transparent. At the same time, there is also a demand to abolish the rule of linking House Rent Allowance (HRA) with DA. It is proposed to increase the HRA rates for cities X, Y, Z from 10%, 20%, 30% to 12%, 24%, 36% respectively.
There will be a complete assessment of the impact on the treasury
The Pay Commission has got a deadline of 18 months to submit its final recommendations. If it takes more time to finalize the main report, an ‘interim report’ can also be brought to provide immediate relief. Any final decision will not be taken only on the basis of demands. The Commission will closely examine the financial discipline of the country, funds available for development work, salary balance between government versus private sector and the impact on the exchequer of state governments. The aim is to keep the wheels of the economy running smoothly.
Also read- 8th Pay Commission: Great news for government employees, salary may increase more than 3 times!
