New Delhi: Five states have urged the Central government to go slow on the implementation of Seventh Pay Commission's recommendations. The five states are: West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha.
Indian Express reported that due to their financially delicate situation, these 5 states want more time to absorb pay hikes recommended by the Justice AK Mathur commission.
According to the report, these states have approached the Prime Minister's Office, Cabinet Secretary and Niti Aayog, seeking more time in implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission.
The Seventh Pay Commission had last month submitted its report to the Ministry of Finance. It had recommended a 23.55 per cent increase in salary, allowances and pension of government staff, involving an additional burden of Rs 1.02 lakh crore in 2016-17. This is less than the overall hike of the Sixth Central Pay Commission.
The Seventh Pay Commission recommendations will benefit 47 lakh central government employees and 52 lakh pensioners. It will lead to an additional outgo of Rs 73,650 crore from the Union Budget and Rs 28,450 crore from Railway Budget.
The new pay scales, subject to acceptance by the government, will come into effect from January 1, 2016.
The government constitutes the Pay Commission almost every 10 years to revise the pay scale of its employees and often these are adopted by states after some modifications.
The Sixth Pay Commission was implemented with effect from January 1, 2006, the fifth from January 1, 1996 and the fourth from January 1, 1986.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance has set up an implementation cell headed by a Joint Secretary level officer to give effect to the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission.
