New Delhi, November 10: On Tuesday night Prime Minister took
the nation by surprise and announced a crackdown on Rs 500 and Rs 1000
notes with effect from same midnight, making these notes invalid across
India. The recent development has no doubt caused inconvenience to
common people. But the most effected ones are government employees who
have been eagerly waiting for the 7th Pay Commission award which may get
delayed following Narendra Modi’s surgical strike on black money to
curb rising black money, fake currency, and corruption. There are
reports that higher allowances under the 7th Pay Commission which were
to be implemented soon will be delayed when the situation returns to
normalcy.
“The process of higher allowances may be delayed as now the government
is busy for making situation normal after a surgical strike on black
money,” a top official of Finance Ministry was quoted by a news portal
on condition of anonymity. The official further added that “after the
surgical strike on black money issues related to many other financial
activities has been increased and the Narendra Modi government has to
kept the process of higher allowances in the pipeline and are waiting
for things to get normalised. However, the government is keen to
implement the higher allowances speedily in a time-bound manner.”
The top official further added that “the Narendra Modi government is in
fear of any eventual incident for a surgical strike on black money in
the country and in view of the current scenario, the government has
decided to delay the announce of higher allowances”.
The Central Government employees unions are pressing hard on the
government to announce the higher allowance and they had recently called
for a Parliament march on December 12. Earlier there were reports that
the ‘Committee on Allowances’ has already given a final touch to its
report on higher allowances. The committee met up with the deadline of
four months given to it by the cabinet to submit its reports, the top
official confirmed.
There are reports that the quantum of allowances may not vary from those
proposed by the 7th Pay Commission as the committee looking into the
issue sticks with the 7th Pay Commission’s recommendations on allowances
proposed higher allowances with retrospective effect from August 2016
but the central government employees unions demanded for implementation
of the allowances with effect from January 2016.
Recently Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa said that his team is ready to
submit its report whenever Finance Minister Arun Jaitley calls up. The
committee on allowances was set up July this year in the direction of
the cabinet.
