7th Pay Commission: Central government employees blame government for delay in higher allowances implementation

7th Pay Commission: Central government employees blame government for delay in higher allowances implementation

New Delhi: : A top most central government employees union leader on Friday said central government had been the villain in the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations in respect of higher allowances and employees had every right to demand arrears on higher allowances.

"The government had delayed in the implementation of the higher allowances. It had failed to handle the financial situation of the employees, according to arrears on higher allowances should be paid," the leader said.

"Earlier the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had claimed it must implement after four months of the basic pay hike but it failed to come true," the leader added.

More than 18 to 19 months had passed since the 7th pay commission report was submitted and twelve months had elapsed since the union cabinet approved the 7th Pay Commission recommendations for salary hike of central government employees, but the Cabinet approved the recommendations on allowances on June 28 this year, which are being paid to the employees from July, 2017 without arrears.

The government has given higher basic pay in August 2016 with arrears, effective from January 1, 2016 to its employees on the recommendations of the 7th pay commission but the hike in allowances other than dearness allowance had referred to the 'Committee on Allowances' headed by the Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa for examination as the pay commission had recommended of abolishing 51 allowances and subsuming 37 others out of 196 allowances.

Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa had said in October 2016, "We are ready to submit our report, when the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley calls up."

But the government had gave extension to the committee up to February 22, 2017 on the pretext of demonetisation and the government said that the cash crunch was the reason behind the delay in announcing higher allowances.

The announcement of assembly elections in five states had also given an excuse for the government as it couldn’t announce pay hikes till the model code of conduct is in place up to March 8.
The government was using delaying tactics to save the government money to pay higher allowances without arrears from August 16.

The delayed implementation of allowances have saved the government nearly Rs 40,000 crore.
The delay in the implementation of allowances is chiefly because of the financial gains of the government, while financial condition of the government is very sound.

The delay in implementation of the higher allowances has caused tremendous irritation and frustration among employees and they also expressed their resentment over the the announcement of non payment of arrears on allowances.

TST