New Delhi, Feb 3: The central government employees might be in for a good news regarding a hike in their minimum pay beyond the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission. The minimum pay hike, beyond the 7th Pay Commission or 7CPCrecommendations, is likely to come into force from April 1, 2018, a top finance ministry revealed on Friday.
While the Gazette will have this information from the next financial year, the implementation of the pay hike for the central government employees, beyond what was recommended in the 7th Pay Commission, would be done only from April 1. “This will be put into the Gazette in next financial year and will be implemented from April 2018,” he said.
It is, however, not clear if the minimum pay hike beyond 7th Pay Commission, has been approved for the mid-level employees as well or not. There were reports that the minimum pay of mid-level and senior level central government employees will not change beyond the 7th Pay Commission recommendations.
“There will be no change in salaries of employees above pay matrix level 5. The ministry is of the view that they have already got a good hike in the 7th Pay Commissionrecommendations,” a senior official had said.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) is against the National Anomaly Committee’s (NAC) proposal to hike the minimum pay and fitment factor beyond the 7th Pay Commission recommendations. The NAC had recommended a minimum pay of Rs 21,000 from 18,000 with fitment factor of 3.00 instead of the existing 2.57 times, beyond what has been recommended in the 7th Pay Commission.
The NAC had sent its recommendation to the 7th pay Commission to the DoPT, which, in return, has sent them to the finance ministry.
“The NAC was tasked with recommending new pay structures for central government employees especially lower-level employees up to the pay matrix level 5 after discussions with all stakeholders,” an official was quoted as saying.
The 7th Pay Commission had recommendations of raise of the basic pay from Rs 7,000 to Rs 18,000 per month, maximum basic pay from Rs 80,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh and fitment factor to 2.57. The central government employees, however, have been demanding a hike in minimum pay from Rs 18,000 to Rs 26,000 and fitment factor 3.68 times from 2.57 times, beyond the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission.