The central government today announced 2 per cent dearness allowance,
benefiting its 48 lakh central government employees and 52 lakh
pensioners, in a bid to ease the inflationary pressure.
All eyes of central government employees are now on ‘Committee on
Allowances’, which will take a final decision in fatter allowances under
the 7th Pay Commission recommendations.
The increasing of Dearness Allowance (DA) of central government
employees and officials were not helpful for maintaining their living
standard, Finance Ministry’s official said on Thursday.
Sources in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said the government may
make a formal announcement on higher allowance after obtaining feedback
from Finance Ministry.
They also said the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had initially appointed
‘Committee on Allowances’ headed by Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa on
July 22 for examination of the recommendations of 7th Pay Commission on
allowances other than dearness allowance and asked to submit its report
with in four months.
The pay commission had recommended abolition of 51 allowances and
subsuming 37 others out of 196 allowances. So, there was resentment
among employees over suggestions to scrap some allowances.
The Pay Commission recommended overall increase in allowances by 63 per cent.
The Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa recently said, “A committee headed by
me is currently examining the Pay Commission’s recommendations on
allowances and it will submit its report soon.
“The cabinet is likely to approve the proposal of committee on
allowances and the higher allowances will be implemented with
retrospective effect from August 2016 but the central government
employees unions demanded for implementation of the allowances with
retrospective effect from January 2016,” the sources confirmed.
“Moreover, arrears for higher allowances will be paid from August,” the source assured.
However, the central government employees’union expressed its resentment
over the non-formation of High Level Committee for reviewing the
minimum pay and allowances and say they must lead their march to
Parliament on December 15 against non-formation of High Level Committee.
The central government employees and pensioners got theirs arrears of
basic pay and pension arising from implementation of the 7th Pay
Commission recommendations in one go in August salaries and pension
respectively. The hike in basic pay and pension has been made effective
from January 1, 2016.
