Seventh Pay Commission: Talks On Allowance Today, Report Likely Soon
The
government had in June accepted the recommendation of Justice AK
Mathur-headed Seventh Pay Commission in respect of the hike in basic pay
and pension but its suggestions relating to allowances were referred to
the committee.
The panel headed by Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa
to review Seventh Pay Commission allowances is expected to soon submit
its report to the government. Shiv Gopal Mishra, the convenor of
National Joint Council of Action (NJCA), a joint body of unions
representing central government employees, said talks in this matter are
in the final leg. The employee union body will be meeting the panel
members today on the issue of Housing Rent Allowance or HRA related to
Seventh Pay Commission.
The government had in June accepted the
recommendation of Justice AK Mathur-headed Seventh Pay Commission in
respect of the hike in basic pay and pension but its suggestions
relating to allowances were referred to the committee. The Seventh Pay
Commission had examined a total of 196 existing allowances and, by way
of rationalisation, recommended abolition of 51 allowances and subsuming
of 37 allowances.
The committee on allowances was initially given
a time of four months to submit its report to the finance minister.
Till a final decision is taken, all existing allowances are being paid
at the Sixth Pay Commission rates.
The Seventh Pay Commission had
recommended that HRA be paid at the rate of 24 per cent, 16 per cent and
8 per cent of the new Basic Pay, depending on type of cities.
The
Seventh Pay Commission had also recommended that the rate of HRA be
revised to 27 per cent, 18 per cent and 9 per cent respectively when DA
crosses 50 per cent, and further revised to 30 per cent, 20 per cent and
10 per cent when DA crosses 100 per cent.
Typically, in case of housing allowance, arrears are not paid.
Allowances
form a significant chunk of government employees' salary. Some analysts
had earlier said that implementation of the housing allowance portion
of the Seventh Pay Commission as well as GST or Goods and Services Tax
could push up average inflation.
"At worst, if the government is
under pressure, this allowance can be pushed to the next year, as was
done in the previous pay commissions. The housing allowance does not
attract arrears," HSBC Securities had said in an earlier report.
The
Cabinet had also decided to constitute two separate committees to
suggest measures for streamlining the implementation of National Pension
System (NPS) and to look into anomalies likely to arise out of
implementation of the Commission's Report.
Source:
NDTV