New Delhi:- Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi’s government has
budgeted to meet nearly three-fourths of the estimated cost of the 7th
Pay Commission report in 2016-17 with a provision of some Rs 53,500
crore, as it deferred the payment of extra allowances of about Rs 22,000
crore.
The budgetary outlay for salaries and pensions rose by Rs 59,000
crore or 21% to Rs 3.36 lakh crore in FY17, while the pay panel had
pegged the annual hike in the outlay for pay, pension and allowances
from the business-as-usual scenario at Rs 73,650 crore.
While the outgo on the one rank, one pension (OROP) scheme is
subsumed in the above budget outlay for FY17, the commission had
estimated the overall increase in pay, allowance and pensions (PAP) over
the usual scenario at 23.6%. Despite no provision for allowances, the
extra PAP outlay made by finance minister Arun Jaitley for FY17 is
tending closer to the additional expenditure estimated by the
commission.
That’s because the Budget provided for around Rs 6,000 crore to meet
some non-pay commission increments to the staff and certain non-salary
revenue expenditure on the armed forces, sources said. For reasons of
confidentiality, the defence salary bill is not explicitly stated by the
government.
The Budget addresses a 16% overall hike in the salary and pension of
central government staff. However, the increase in pension outlay is a
little more than what the commission proposed thanks to OROP for the
armed forces. Separately, the cost of OROP was estimated at about Rs
10,000 crore for FY17.
Apart from the estimate for FY17, the Centre will also have to foot
the arrears bill for the first three months (January-March) of the pay
panel’s award period sooner or later.
Of the Rs 1.02 lakh crore additional expenditure needed to meet pay
panel award in FY17, Rs 73,650 crore would be via the Union Budget and
Rs 28,450 crore routed through the Railway Budget. The allocations for
allowances, mostly house rent allowance, would depend on the report of a
committee of secretaries which is going through the recommendations of
the commission.
Source : Financial Express
