'Odisha to implement 7th Pay Commission recommendations soon'

Bhubaneswar: Notwithstanding its bad liquidity position, Odisha government is likely to implement the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission for its employees and pensioners soon.

Finance Minister S B Behera said "we have received the report from the fitment committee and the government is considering to implement the new pay scale for the employees soon."

However, Behera said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik would take a decision on how soon the employees would receive their salary with the enhanced amount.

The state government, on the other hand, was worried over the fact that it had already taken a loan of Rs 3,000 crore from the open market during the first five months of the 2017-18 fiscal, a senior official said.

However, the state government is under constant pressure from employees unions as the the Seventh Pay Commission Recommendations have been implemented with effect from 1 January, 2016 in some states and the central government.

The state government felt that there would be substantial burden on state exchequer. There would be an extra load of Rs 5,500 crore per annum as estimated.

With the tax dipute between the state government at the IOCL has so far been been resolved, the employees hope that financial constraint will no more be a problem for the state. The government will get Rs 1500 per annum from IOCL, an official said.