Ministry of Finance: Year End Review 2017 - Regarding 7th Central Pay Commission

Ministry of Finance: Year End Review 2017 - Regarding 7th Central Pay Commission

Enhancing the quality of life remained primary goal for Government when it put into implementation the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission to benefit more than 48 Lakh Central Government Employees.

Department of Expenditure (DOE)

• General Financial Rules (GFRs), 2017 were released on 7th March, 2017 to enable an improved, efficient and effective framework of fiscal management while providing the necessary flexibility to facilitate timely delivery of services.
• 7th CPC - On 28th June 2017, the Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi approved the recommendations of the 7th CPC on allowances with some modifications. The revised rates of the allowances came into effect from 1st July, 2017 benefitting more than 48 lakh Central Government Employees.

While approving the recommendations of the 7th CPC, the Cabinet had decided to set-up the Committee on Allowances (CoA) in view of substantial changes in the existing provisions and a number of representations received. The 7th CPC adopted a threepronged approach in examining a total of 197 allowances which involved an assessment of the need for continuation of each allowance, appropriateness of the set of people covered by the allowance and rationalisation which involved clubbing of allowances with similar objectives. Based on the examination on these lines, the 7th CPC recommended that 53 allowances be abolished and 37 be subsumed in an existing or a newly proposed allowance. For most of the allowances that were retained, the 7th CPC recommended a raise commensurate with inflation as reflected in the rates of Dearness Allowance (DA).

A new paradigm was evolved to administer the allowances linked to risk and hardship. The myriad allowances, their categories and sub-categories pertaining to civilians employees, CAPF and defence personnel were fitted into a table called the Risk and Hardship Matrix (R&H Matrix).

Source: DoE