A very shocking news is coming out for lakhs of central government employees and pensioners across the country. The 8th Central Pay Commission has currently reached the final stages of its negotiations with the state governments. But meanwhile, news is being received that in view of the huge financial burden on the coffers of the Center and the states, this time the Commission may adopt a very cautious and slightly strict stance in the matter of ‘fitment factor’.
Although the Pay Commission has not yet finalized its final recommendations, but initial internal discussions are clearly indicating that this time the fitment factor may remain around the multiplier of 2.57 decided by the 7th Pay Commission. This news may be a bit disturbing for the employees, because various employee unions are continuously demanding to increase it significantly. Let us tell you that fitment factor is the main formula which decides the new salary level by multiplying the existing basic pay and pension. This is why it is considered the most important part of the entire salary revision process.
A senior government official, who has direct knowledge of this entire matter and discussions, has made a big revelation in the report of Economic Times (ET). According to the official, now the entire process of the Pay Commission is focusing on determining the possible range of fitment factor, building a consensus with the state governments and making an accurate assessment of the financial impact on the exchequer of the revised pay and pension structure. The assessment of this economic expenditure on the central and state governments is going to play the most decisive role in deciding the new salary structure. On the other hand, the package of demands submitted by government employees has advocated a huge increase in salaries, including implementation of a fitment factor of 3.83 and a direct increase in the minimum basic salary to ₹69,000.
The deadline for submitting the memorandum of your demands to the Pay Commission has completely expired on June 15. With this, the phase of presenting their formal demands on behalf of employee unions, pensioners associations and all other stakeholders has also been completed. Now the biggest task before the Commission is to review all these demands as well as closely study the feedback and data received from the state governments.
Earlier, the Commission has completed important meetings in Delhi, Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Telangana, Maharashtra and many other States and Union Territories to reach out to the stakeholders living in different parts of the country. Sources say that the round of talks with the remaining states is also expected to be completed soon. After this, the panel will bring together all the information and proceed to draft its final report.
This final report of the Pay Commission is going to decide the new and revised salary and pension structure for central employees and pensioners. If we look at the history, when the 7th Pay Commission implemented the fitment factor of 2.57, the minimum basic pay of the employees directly increased from ₹ 7,000 to ₹ 17,990. But along with this, the revenue expenditure of the central government also increased from 4.8 percent in the year 2015-16 to 9.9 percent in the year 2016-17. This is the reason why this time the government and the commission are taking cautious steps so that there is no adverse impact on the economy.
