With Arun Jaitley back as Union Finance Minister, the Central Government employees, who have been waiting for a hike in minimum pay beyond the 7th Pay Commission recommendations, see a ray of hope.
Around 50 lakh central government employees are waiting for the hike. However, Minister of State for Finance, P. Radhakrishnan, had cleared earlier that currently, the government has no plans to increase the minimum salary beyond the seventh pay recommendations.
At present, the Central government employees are getting basic pay according to the fitment formula of 2.57 of the basic pay. Employees are demanding the minimum pay hike of Rs 26,000 instead of Rs 18,000, what seventh pay commission has recommended.
Last week, Jaitley resumed charge of the ministries of finance and corporate affairs, returning to work after a nearly 100-day gap during which he underwent kidney transplant.
According to some report, only discussions were held with Piyush Goyal at the helm in Arun Jaitley's absence. The officials held talks, but no concrete decision was taken.
However, now with Jaitley back as Finance Minister, some decision in the regard could be made soon.
Jaitley, 65, who had stopped attending office a month-and-half before the May 14 renal surgery, came to North Block -- from where the minister for finance and corporate affairs works.
Recently, the Maharashtra government announced that the employees will get pay hike beyond the 7th CPC and not just this, the government will also provide arrears for three years. CM Devendra Fadnavis had earlier announced that implementations of the seventh pay commission will come into effect in January, 2019.
