7th Pay Commission: Will Government Hike Minimum Pay, Fitment Factor in 2018?

New Delhi, Jan 3: The government approved the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission or 7th CPC in 2016. It is 2018 now but issues related to a hike in minimum pay and fitment factor beyond the recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission are yet to be resolved. According to Finance Ministry officials, Arun Jaitley remains committed to hiking minimum pay beyond the 7th Pay Commission recommendations for the central government employees and he is likely to give nod the pay ratio 1:12 instead of current 1:14 in respect of minimum pay and maximum pay. But the question is ‘when’.

The 7th Pay Commission had recommended a 14.27 percent hike in basic pay — the lowest in 70 years, raising minimum pay from Rs 7,000 to Rs 18,000 month. The government approved the recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission on salary hike in 2016. However, the recommendations regarding allowances were notified a year later. The central government employees have been asking the Centre to raise minimum pay to Rs 26,000 from Rs 18,000 and fitment factor 3.68 times from 2.57 times.

On June 30, 2016, a day after the Cabinet cleared the 7th Pay Commission recommendations, Arun Jaitley had promised to appoint a high-level committee to look into the issue of hike in minimum pay and fitment factor. Instead of the high-level panel, the government constituted the National Anomaly Committee (NAC) in September 2016. However, the NAC is unlikely to provide any relief to the central government employees.

A letter from DoPT to Secretary of Staff Side Shiv Gopal Mishra stated that the demand for an increase in minimum pay and fitment formula beyond the recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission does not appear to be treated as an anomaly, therefore, these do not come under the purview of the NAC. If media reports are to be believed, the government is likely to form a high-level committee to fix new pay structure beyond the recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission.

The high-level committee will submit a report on the salary hike, beyond the recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission, of more than 1 crore Central government employees and pensioners in six months. The committee will have secretaries from ministries of Home Affairs and Defence, department of personnel and training, pension, revenue, expenditure, posts, health, science and technology Chairman of Railway Board and Deputy CAG as its members. However, there is no official announcement yet.

The central government employees have warned the government to go on indefinite strike if it doesn’t raise minimum pay and fitment factor beyond the recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission.

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