"We have provisioned for around 60-70 per cent of the total burden that was talked about," the official said adding about Rs 70,000 crore has been provided in the Budget
As much as Rs 70,000 crore has been provisioned in the Union Budget
2016-17 for implementation of Seventh Pay Commission for government
employees, a top finance ministry official said.
While the Budget did not provide an explicit overall provision
number, the government had said the 7th Pay Commission hike has been
built in as interim allocation for different ministries and Budget
numbers were credible.
Implementation of the pay commission report in toto is to cost the government Rs 1.02 lakh crore.
“We have provisioned for around 60-70 per cent of the total burden
that was talked about,” the official said adding about Rs 70,000 crore
has been provided in the Budget.
“We will wait to see the report of the Committee of Secretaries on
the 7th Pay Commission and decide if we need further allocation,” he
said.
The Budget document states that “the implementation of the Seventh
Pay Commission due from January 1, 2016 is to be implemented during
2016-17 fiscal as also the revised One Rank One Pension (OROP)scheme for
Defence services.”
The finance ministry has provisioned for this in the Demands for
Grants for individual departments and ministries. It is built into and
subsumed into those allocations.
“No one actually knows what will be the actual burden on the
exchequer for the implementation of Pay commission recommendation. We
have calculated internally and allocated to various ministries and
departments accordingly,” the official said.
The government in January set up a high-powered panel headed by
Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha to process the recommendations of the 7th
Pay Commission which will have bearing on the remuneration of 47 lakh
central government employees and 52 lakh pensioners.
The Empowered Committee of Secretaries will function as a Screening
Committee to process the recommendations with regard to all relevant
factors of the Commission in an expeditious detailed and holistic
fashion.
The official further said the finance ministry has fully provided for OROP scheme for defence personnel.
Faced with the burden of Pay Commission recommendations, there were
concerns on whether the government would be able to stick to the fiscal
deficit target of 3.9 per cent for 2016-17.
However, in Budget Finance Minister Arun Jaitley dispelled doubts and
promised to adhere to the fiscal consolidation roadmap and stick to 3.9
per cent deficit target.
