7th Pay Commission Report revised allowances: The long wait of Central government employees for updates on higher allowances, recommended by the 7th Pay Commission, doesn’t look like ending any time soon. They have been waiting for it for weeks, ever since the Committee on Allowances – headed by Ashok Lavasa and constituted by the Ministry of Finance to examine the Seventh Pay Commission report recommendations on allowances – submitted its proposals in the last week of April. Following this, the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS), set up to screen the 7th CPC recommendations, was reportedly set to discuss the recommendations of the Lavasa Committee and firm up the proposal for approval of the Cabinet in the second half of May itself. However, the suspense over update continues as the Union Cabinet is yet to take a decision on this matter, according to sources.
Meanwhile, an FE
Bureau report has said that over 4.9 million Central government staff may start
receiving revised allowances, including HRA, from July 18, months after their
pay was hiked as per the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations. It said that
the delay in disbursal of the revised allowances has saved the exchequer Rs
2,200 crore a month or Rs 40,000 crore cumulatively since January 1, 2016, but
the government might partly compensate employees for this with a more generous
HRA than recommended by the panel.
Government employees,
however, seem to be both anxious and furious as the government is yet to make
any formal announcement in this regard. And until that happens, nothing can be
said for sure, they say. It may be noted that the decision to set up the
Committee on Allowances was taken in view of significant changes recommended by
the 7th CPC in the allowances structure. The 7th CPC had recommended that of a
total of 196 allowances, 52 be abolished altogether and 36 be abolished as
separate identities by subsuming them in another allowance.
Based on such extensive consultations and
detailed examination, the Committee had suggested certain modifications in the
7th CPC recommendations so as to address the concerns of the stakeholders in
the context of the rationale behind the recommendations of the 7th CPC as well
as other administrative exigencies. Modifications have been suggested in some
allowances which are applicable universally to all employees as well as certain
other allowances which apply to specific employee categories such as railway men,
postal employees, scientists, defence forces personnel, doctors and nurses, etc
