7th Pay Commission: Should government employees prepare for the worst news?

New Delhi: Even as lakhs of central government employees are waiting for hike in salary above the recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission, reports are coming that they should be ready to brace for worse news in the coming days.

Government employees have been demanding hike the fitment formula 3.68 times of basic pay of 6th pay commission. The central government employees unions have also been demanding for hiking minimum pay of Rs 18,000 to Rs 26,000. They have also demanded that fitment factor be raised from 2.57 times to 3.68 times.

However, as per new reports , the government may not be able to go beyond the either the fitment factor of 2.57 times that were recommended by the 7th Pay Commission or hiking the basic minimum pay.

This situation has reportedly arisen due to the biggest banking fraud that was recently detected by the Punjab National Bank. PNB has detected a banking fraud of over Rs 12,600. Furthermore, it has been widely cited that more banks could be exposed to banking frauds. Since the fraud amount is so huge, it will be tough for the government to go beyond any recommendation amount, media reports have said.

The Union Cabinet had in June approved recommendations of the CPC with 34 modifications, which will mean an additional annual burden of Rs 30,748 crore on the exchequer.

The new scales of pay provide for entry-level basic pay going up from Rs 7,000 per month to Rs 18,000, while at the highest level i.e. Secretary, it would go up from Rs 90,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh. For Class 1 officers, the starting salary will be Rs 56,100.

All allowances are given effect from July 1, 2017.

The recommendations benefit over 1 crore employees. This includes over 47 lakh central government employees and 53 lakh pensioners, of which 14 lakh employees and 18 lakh pensioners are from the defence forces.

The Narendra Modi government had in the past vowed to resolve all the payment, arrears, hiked allowances and fitment formula related issues rising out of the recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission