Minimum basic pay for central government staff likely to be Rs20,000 pm

The minimum basic salary of a central government employee under the revised salary structure proposed by the 7th Pay Commission is likely to be Rs20,000 per month, a rise of around 19 per cent on the base salary originally recommended by the pay panel.

The central government employee unions had sought a revision in 7th pay panel recommendations to Rs26,000 per month.

The Empowered Committee of Secretaries (CoS) is expected to propose a minimum pay of Rs20,000, against the Rs18,000 per month prescribed by the 7th pay panel as also a hike in annual increments.

The 7th Pay Commission report, released in November last year, had prescribed a minimum pay of Rs18,000 per month against the existing Rs7,000 per month, and a maximum pay of Rs2,50,000 per month against the existing Rs90,000 per month.

The cabinet is expected to approve the revised pay scales in June.

The award of the 7th CPC recommended pay scales is likely to come with salary increment, which was also due in July.

The implementation of the 7Th CPC recommendations is expected to bring a financial burden of around Rs1,02,000 crore for the exchequer. The central government has already made provision of Rs70,000 crore in the Budget 2016-17 to meet the payout of the pay commission award.

Also, along with the upward revision of the minimum pay, the 7th pay panel has recommended that HRA be paid at the rate of 24 per cent, 16 per cent and 8 per cent of the new basic pay for Class X, Y and Z cities respectively.

The commission also recommended that the rate of HRA will be revised to 27 per cent, 18 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively, when DA crosses 50 per cent, and further revised to 30 per cent, 20 per cent and 10 per cent when DA crosses 100 per cent.

However, no arrears will be paid on the HRA, and will be effective only when the pay panel award is notified.