Pay fitment committee to submit report in March

Pay fitment committee to submit report in March

PATNA: The three-member pay fitment committee (PFC) headed by former chief secretary G S Kang would submit the final report on revision of salaries and allowances of the state government employees and officials in March this year.

The state cabinet had okayed constitution of the three-member PFC early last month. Finance department secretary (expenditure) Rahul Singh is member secretary of the three-member committee and rural works department secretary Vinay Kumar is its member.

The PFC has to fix the salaries and allowances of around 4.5 lakh employees of the state government in accordance with the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission meant for the central government employees and officials.

The expected hike in salaries and allowances of the state government, including pensions of around 1.5 lakh retired employees and officials, would be by around 15%, putting an additional annual burden of a whopping Rs 9,000 crore on the state exchequer.

Singh said the contractual teachers of primary and secondary schools would not be covered by the PFC, as they are attached to the panchayat and urban local bodies.

Similarly, other contractual staff manning the state government officials from the state secretariat down to the block levels - like computer operators - would also be outside the ambit of the PFC. Singh, however, indicated that the state government has been working on how best to deal with the emoluments of computer operators to their satisfaction.

Otherwise, the finance department would issue the formal notification by Monday or Tuesday next week regarding the constitution of the PFC and also the place where it would remain functional for the next three months. The PFC would function from Shram Bhawan near income-tax roundabout.

Singh said the PFC would invite and receive memoranda from organisations concerned of the government employees and officials till January 20 with regard to their demands and suggestions on the issues related to pay fixation and consequent revision of salaries and allowances, including of the retired personnel.

Thereafter, PFC would give hearing to them till the second week of February, and the full and final report be submitted to the government sometime in March, Singh said, adding that the pay revision would not prove to be a taxing problem, because most of the anomalies had been removed during the pay fixation done while adjusting their salaries and allowances in accordance with the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission.

Source : TOI