State pay panel recommends 2.62-fold hike in minimum pay

State pay panel recommends 2.62-fold hike in minimum pay

GUWAHATI, Nov 28: The seventh pay commission report for Assam government employees is out, bearing good news on several fronts. The recommendations propose a 2.62-fold hike in minimum pay, automatic 20 percent addition to pension amounts for pensioners reaching 80 years of age, full family pension till 7 years after death of pensioner or when he/she would have attained 67 years of age, bringing back city allowance for State government employees posted in Guwahati, and reducing disparity between maximum and minimum salary to 8.18 from 9.08 earlier. The State government will require an additional Rs 3,238.28 crore in the next fiscal if the recommendations are to be put into effect from April 1, 2017.

Assam Finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday made the recommendations of the 7th Assam Pay and Productivity Pay Commission public. The 7th Pay Commission is headed by PP Verma, retired IAS.

“From now onwards, the minimum pay of a State government employee has been fixed at Rs 15,900, which was Rs 6,000 earlier. The hike in minimum pay is 2.62 times more than the previous one,” adding, “This implies a real increase of 16.44 percent over the previous minimum pay. The corresponding figure for hike in minimum Central pay was only 14.3 percent in respect of the 7th Central Pay Commission over 6th Central Pay Commission,” said Sarma while making the recommendations public.

However, Sarma informed that recommendations of the 7th Assam Pay and Productivity Pay Commission are yet to be accepted by the State Cabinet.

The Finance minister said a team of three commissioners of the Finance department will examine the financial implications arising out of the 7th Pay Commission’s recommendations. “In February 2017, the report containing recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission will be placed before the State Cabinet. In the February budget, funds will be allocated for making the latest recommendations of the Pay Commission effective and hopefully we will be able to pay salaries to the State government employees from April 1, 2017 as per these recommendations,” added the Finance minister.

Sarma said this time around, the 7th Pay Commission submitted its report on time. In this context, he drew comparison with the report by the earlier Pay Commission during the previous Congress regime, that was submitted 29 months past the stipulated time.

The Finance minister also had some good news for pensioners as per the Pay panel report. “When a pensioner reaches 80 years of age, 20 percent of his pension amount will automatically be added to his actual pension that he or she gets,” said Sarma.

Similarly, there are glad tidings on the family pension front. “As per earlier rule, if a government employee dies while in service, the family of the deceased employee gets half the pension amount. But from now onwards, as per recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission, the family of the deceased employee will get full pension till 7 years after his or her death or till he or she would have attained 67 years of age, whichever is earlier”

According to the Finance minister, the State government will need an additional fund of Rs 3,238.28 crore in the financial year 2017-18 for putting into effect the latest recommendations of the Pay Commission. At present, Rs 25,000 crore is spent by the State government towards salary and pension of its employees, he said.

The 7th Pay Commission has also recommended payment of ‘city allowance’ to its employees who work in Guwahati. Though the allowance was there earlier, it was stopped by the previous government. The Pay Commission has recommended same salaries for employees of district offices and employees of director offices of the State government. Earlier, there was a difference in their salaries, informed the Finance minister.

Sarma further said from now onwards if someone gets a job in the State government, the person will have to first serve for three years on probation ground, but he or she will receive only the pay scale, as recommended by the 7th Pay Commission.

The 7th Pay Commission has also recommended that the next pay panel should be constituted after 5 years, rather than 10 years as is the practice currently, informed the Finance minister.

Another important recommendation made by the 7th Pay Commission is that grade pay has been reduced to 24 from earlier 30, but five pay bands as fixed earlier will remain the same.

On the disparity of salaries, Sarma said it has been reduced as per recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission. “The Pay Commission has recommended a maximum pay of Rs 1,30,000 as fixed pay. With this, the ratio of maximum pay to minimum pay has become 8.18 as against 9.08 in case of the earlier Pay Commission,” Sarma said, adding, “The 7th Pay Commission has recommended to calculate DA from 1/1/2016 and recommended April 1, 2017 as the date of effect for these recommendations. All allowances and benefits recommended by the Commission shall have prospective effect.”

The Pay Commission has also recommended a modified scheme of Assured Career Progression. Recommendations of APC 2008 regarding creation of Assam Administrative Service have been reiterated and measures have been suggested to make it a better tool for administrative transformation. Earlier this was there twice in the career i.e. on completion of service of 10 & 24 years. Now, it is recommended for increasing this to three times in the career i.e. on completion of service of 10, 20 & 30 years.

The full 7th Pay Commission report, which has been made available on www.assam.gov.in/web/finance, can be accessed by anyone.

It may be mentioned that recommendations made by the previous Pay Commission triggered large-scale resentment among employees of Assam government. It is now to be seen how the State government employees respond to the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission. 

This article's Source : Sentinelassam