The railway senior citizen welfare society (RSCWS) has recommended setting up an eighth pay commission when dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) reach 50 per cent more than basic pay.
The current rates are causing great injustice to central government employees and pensioners, as per a memorandum dated 30 May 2023 shared with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
In the memorandum, the RSCWS explained the struggle of employees and pensioners facing major financial constraints for the past 70 years due to the prolonged ten-year gaps between the central pay commissions (CPA)
The seventh pay commission had a fixed minimum pay of Rs 18,000 instead of Rs 26,000, and the fitment factor at 2.57 instead of 3.15. Whereas the fifth and sixth CPA recommended abolishing the ten-year norm and rather linking it with the date from which DA and DR rise above 50 per cent.
The memorandum said, “Taking into account the recommendations made in the last three CPCs, the pay structure needs to be revised in order to neutralize the impact of inflation and the future revision should be done only when the DA and DR reach 50 per cent more than the basic pay. The rate is expected to cross the 50 per cent mark from January 2024, and therefore, the pay and allowances and Pension needs to revise thereafter.”
It added that the DA and DR rates do not provide adequate relief against inflation and are also not able to keep up with the rising per capita income of the country, causing great injustice to the central government employees and pensioners.
As the pay commissions take more than two years for submitting their reports and an additional year to implement the same which further erodes the relative value of the proposed CPC, the RSCWS urged the Centre to set up the eighth central pay commission (CPC) early and an interim relief to the government employees and pensioners with effect from 1 January 2024, in order to compensate for the erosion of their allowances and pay and pension due to inflation.
The statistics mentioned by RSCWS in the memorandum showed a more than double jump in per capita income of India from Rs 93,293 in 2015-2016 to Rs 1,97,000 in 2022-2023. Also, a noticeable increase of 42 per cent is seen in the Pay and Pension of Central Government employees from 2016 to 2023.
The government in 2022 said that there might not be a need to set up another Pay Commission while the Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary stated, “There is no such proposal under consideration for setting up the eighth pay commission.”
With the current rate of DA at 42 per cent of basic pay for central government employees, it is expected to rise by another 3 per cent and at this growth rate, DA and DR might cross the 50 per cent mark by the end of 2024.
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