Was the 7th CPC Allowance Committee Report submitted to the government as early as February 22?
7th CPC Allowance Committee Report Submitted to the Government or not?
Was the 7th CPC Allowance Committee Report submitted to the government as early as February 22?
A
high-level committee, under the chairmanship of Finance Secretary Ashok
Lavasa was constituted by the Central Government to review the Seventh
Pay Commission’s recommendations regarding the allowances being given to
the Central Government employees. According to information, the
committee had already submitted its report on February 22.
Irrespective
of who possesses the report now - the committee or the government
- what is more intriguing is the recommendations that it contains.
One
could see that the 7th Pay Commission suggested either rationalization
or simplification at many places. An example is the Pay Matrix Table,
which has now brought the entire Pay Structure of more than 35 lakh
employees under one Table. Although there are some anomalies, the system
has dramatically simplified the process of annual increment calculation
and also pay fixation on Promotion or MACP.
At present 196
different kinds of allowances are being given to the Central Government
employees. Some modifications have been recommended in these too as part
of the rationalization and simplification drive. The Seventh Pay
Commission has recommended the abolition of 52 allowances. And another
36 allowances have been abolished as separate identities, but subsumed
either in an existing allowance or in newly proposed allowances.
The
Commission said that the entire range of allowances is administered in
broadly four ways. Fully DA indexed Allowances, Partially or Semi DA
indexed Allowances, No DA indexation Allowances and Percentage based
Allowances. House Rent Allowance is being under the category of
Percentage based Allowances. The Commission also said that the
compensation towards the housing needs of Central Government employees
is covered in many ways. The Commission finally suggested that the
percentage based allowances by a factor of 0.8, the Commission
recommends that HRA should be rationalized to 24 percent, 16 percent and
8 percent of the Basic Pay for Class X, Y and Z cities respectively.
The
big irritation, or rather disappointment to the Central Government
employees was the recommendation to reduce the percentage of House Rent
Allowance (HRA).
All trade unions have expressed their harsh
opposition to the proposed cuts in HRA. The Central Government
employees’ Federations also expressed their disappointment through
various protest. Finally the Central Government accepted to constitute a
high level committee to examine the recommendations of 7th Pay
Commission regarding Allowances.
Now, sources claim that the committee has already submitted its report to the government.
The
government can announce its final decision on the recommendations of
the committee any day. But, many believe that there could be a delay in
the announcements due to the state elections that are being held in
various parts of the country and the election commission’s guidelines
that are being enforced now.
Unconfirmed reports say that the
committee has recommended the percentage rates of HRA as per 6th CPC and
changes in the method of calculating Transport Allowances also.
The biggest mystery however is - will these recommendations be given retrospective effect and will arrears be given?
Three dates are currently being suggested - January 1, 2016; August 1, 2016; and April 1, 2017.
Only the Central Government has all the answers right now.
