Around 50 lakh government employees who have been eagerly waiting for the much awaited pay hike got disappointment.
It's been quite long since the employees demanded the minimum pay hike to be increased to Rs 21,000 from Rs 18,000, which the seventh pay commission recommended.
But putting rest to all the speculations, Minister of State for Finance P. Radhakrishnan’s in Lok Sabha clarified that the PM Narendra Modi government is not considering any minimum pay hike beyond the recommendations of the seventh pay commission.
Radhakrishnan in Lok Sabha said, "The minimum pay of Rs 18,000/- per month and fitment factor of 2.57 is based on the specific recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission in the light of the relevant factors taken into account by it. Therefore, no change therein is at present under consideration."
He was replying to a question by Samajwadi Party lawmaker Neeraj Shekhar in which he asked, "whether Government is actively contemplating to increase minimum pay from Rs 18,000/- to Rs 21,000/- and fitment factor from 2.57 to 3, in view of resentment among Central Government employees over historically lowest increase in pay by 7th Central Pay Commission."
Currently, the Central government employees are getting basic pay according to the fitment formula of 2.57 of the basic pay and if this big step is taken, it will come as a massive news for the Central government employees.
Fitment factor is a figure used by 7th CPC with which the basic pay in 6th CPC regime (i.e Pay in Pay band + Grade pay) is multiplied in order to fix basic pay in revised pay structure (i.e 7th CPC). Fitment factor formulated by 7th CPC is 2.57.
Experts believe that the reason behind the no hike could be higher-than-projected revenue deficits.
Analysts say that implementing the seventh pay commission itself has impacted the government's budget negatively and with various states indicating that that their economies have been affected by the large payouts.
Meanwhile, NJAC’s Shiv Gopal Mishra, who led the negotiation over 7th Pay Commission on behalf of central government employees, expressed dissatisfaction over the government’s decision and said the struggle for higher minimum pay will continue.
“The employees are agitated. There is a tremendous amount of disappointment. I can assure you that the demand to raise the minimum pay has not been forfeited. We will continue our struggle in an organised manner. If negotiations fail to bring the result, the option of agitation cannot be ruled out,” Mishra said.
