Pay Commission recommends 16% hike in salaries, OROP for civilians

New Delhi An estimated 47 lakh serving central government employees and 52 lakh pensioners including defence personnel on Thursday had reason to cheer with the 7th Pay Commission recommending a 16percent salary hikePay Commission chairman Justice AK Mathur who submitted the report to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley here on Thursday said the proposals will entail an outflow of Rs102100 crore from the exchequer during the next fiscalThe One Rank One Pension proposal is also recommended for all employees including the defence personnel retiring before January 1 next yearThe commission also recommended a 24percent hike in pension besides a minimum pay of Rs18000 per month for all entrylevel employees and Rs25 lakh for the seniormost serving officer the cabinet secretaryThe increase in pay will be 16 percent increase in allowances will be 63 percent and increase in pension would be 24 percent Justice Mathur said adding that an annual increment of 3 percent has also been recommendedSoon after the submission of the report Jaitley told reporters here that a secretariat to implement the pay commission recommendations will be set up under the expenditure secretaryA separate empowered committee of various departments will examine the recommendationsThe recommendations will be examined expeditiously and the government will take a final decision Jaitley addedThe commission recommends a revised pension formulation for civil employees including the Central Armed Police Force and defence personnel who have retired before January 1 2015 it saidThis will bring about complete parity of past pensioners with current retireesA far reaching recommendation is to abolish 52 allowances altogether In the case of house rent allowance the panel said since the basic pay was proposed at a much higher rate such an emolument should be paid at the rate of 24 percent 16 percent and 8 percent of the new basic pay for classes X Y and Z cities respectivelyThe commission also recommends that the rate of house rent allowance be revised to 27 percent 18 percent and 9 percent when dearness allowance crosses 50 percent and to 30 percent 20 percent and 10 percent when it crosses 100 percentBut the house building advance ceiling is proposed at Rs25 lakh against Rs75 lakhA health insurance scheme for central government employees and pensioners has been also been recommended For serving personnel and pensioners outside the CGHS areas a scheme must be implemented for cashless benefitThe ceiling of gratuity is also recommended at a higher rate of Rs20 lakh against Rs10 lakh The ceiling on gratuity may be raised by 25 percent whenever dearness allowance rises by 50 percentIn the case of defence personnel against the existing pay of Rs6000 per month for service officers the proposal is for Rs15500 This apart short service commissioned officers will be allowed to exit the forces at any point between seven and ten yearsFor those serving in the difficult Siachen glacier the pay for service officers is proposed at Rs31500 per month against Rs21000 per month now and Rs21000 for junior commissioned officers against the present salary of Rs14000To ensure productivity the commission has recommended a performance related pay for all categories of central government employees based on certain parameters including annual performance appraisal reports which will subsume the existing bonus schemeThere are also a few recommendations where there was no unanimity among the members like on the removal of the edge enjoyed by the members of the Indian Administrative Service over their foreign affairs counterpartsAlso the age of retirement of 60 years suggested by the chair and member Rathin Roy was not agreed to by another member Vivek Rae