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| Arun Jaitley addressing a press conference in New Delhi on November 12, 2016.PIB India |
The finance ministry seems better placed now after demonetisation to
decide on raising allowances as recommended by the 7th Pay Commission.
With the dust at least partly settled over demonetisation and the
subsequent disruption at the finance ministry, there seems to be renewed
cheer among Central government employees of a decision on allowances as
recommended by the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC). Two developments
in this regard are worth taking note of, even as Budget 2017 is about a
month away.
As has been reportedly earlier, the second amnesty scheme for tax
defaulters — Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, 2016 — estimated to net
the Modi government a substantial amount, the financial outgo of Rs
1,02,100 crore no longer seems to be a hurdle.
However, the note ban decision and the spate of activities that followed
the decision about raising allowances to the back burner made employees
restive.
Now they hope the government will quickly move on the issue that
involves about 47 lakh Central government employees and 53 lakh
pensioners, of which 14 lakh employees and 18 lakh pensioners are from
the defence forces.
While a website claiming to represent bureaucrats said that the finance
ministry is likely to pay the enhanced allowances (possibly along with
arrears) after Budget 2017 in February, another said that employees have
sought a meeting with the ministry to resolve the issue at the
earliest.
"Government is very pleased to pay the higher allowances to its
employees after Budget. The acute cash crunch in banks and ATMs that
prevailed for a month following the demonetization move of the
government has eased from January 1, as the daily withdrawal limit from
ATMs has been increased from Rs 2,500 to Rs 4,500. Hence, the Finance
Ministry felt it would be wiser to announce of higher allowances after
Budget," the Sen Times quoted a senior finance ministry official as
saying.
Another significant development is a communication by the staff side
National Council of the Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM) seeking an
early redressal of the issue.
"Almost four months have passed (since September 1, 2016 meeting)
without any outcome. All the Central Government Employees are quite
agitated as well as are having mental agony because allowances of the
VII CPC, have not been implemented. You are therefore, requested to
fix-up a meeting of the Committee on Allowances, at an earliest to
resolve the issues placed in the memorandum of the Staff Side(JCM) on
various allowances," the letter read.
The CPC examined 196 allowances and gave its recommendations on
abolishing or raising some of them while recommending others to be
subsumed with other perks. It had proposed 138.71 percent hike in HRA
and 49.79 percent for other allowances, while submitting its voluminous
report in November 2015.
The Budget for the financial year 2017-18 is likely to be presented on February 1 by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Calculation of financial implications by the 7th CPC.7th Central Pay Commission
Source : http://www.ibtimes.co.in/
