Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
19-November-2015 20:24 IST
Highlights of Recommendations of Seventh Central Pay Commission
 |
| The Chairman of the Seventh Pay Commission, Justice A.K. Mathur submitted its report to the Union Minister for Finance, Corporate Affairs and Information & Broadcasting, Shri Arun Jaitley, in New Delhi on November 19, 2015. |
Recommended Date of implementation
: 01.01.2016
Minimum Pay:
Based on the Aykroyd formula, the minimum pay in government is recommended to be set at Rs.18,000 per month.
Maximum Pay
: Rs.2,25,000 per month for Apex Scale and Rs.2,50,000 per
month for Cabinet Secretary and others presently at the same pay level.
Financial Implications:
The total financial impact in the FY 2016-17 is likely to be Rs.1,02,100
crore, over the expenditure as per the ‘Business As Usual’ scenario. Of
this, the increase in pay would be Rs.39,100 crore, increase
in allowances would be Rs. 29,300 crore and increase in pension would
be Rs.33,700 crore.
Out of the total financial impact of Rs.1,02,100 crore, Rs.73,650 crore
will be borne by the General Budget and Rs.28,450 crore by the Railway
Budget.
In percentage terms the overall increase in pay & allowances and
pensions over the ‘Business As Usual’ scenario will be 23.55 percent.
Within
this, the increase in pay will be 16 percent, increase in
allowances will be 63 percent, and increase in pension would be 24
percent.
The total impact of the Commission’s recommendations are expected to
entail an increase of 0.65 percentage points in the ratio of expenditure
on
(Pay+Allowances+ Pension) to GDP compared to 0.77 percent in
case of VI CPC.
New Pay Structure:
Considering the issues raised regarding the Grade Pay
structure and with a view to bring in greater transparency, the present
system of pay bands
and grade pay has been dispensed with and a new pay matrix
has been designed. Grade Pay has been subsumed in the pay matrix. The
status of the
employee, hitherto determined by grade pay, will now be
determined by the level in the pay matrix.
Fitment:
A fitment factor of 2.57 is being proposed to be applied uniformly for all employees.
Annual Increment
: The rate of annual increment is being retained at 3 percent.
Modified Assured Career Progression (MACP)
:
Performance benchmarks for MACP have been made more stringent from “Good” to “Very Good”.
The Commission has also proposed that annual increments not be granted
in the case of those employees who are not able to meet the benchmark
either
for MACP or for a regular promotion in the first 20 years of
their service.
No other changes in MACP recommended.
Military Service Pay (
MSP): The Military Service Pay, which is a compensation for the various
aspects of military service, will be admissible to the Defence forces personnel only. As before, Military Service Pay will be payable to all ranks up to and inclusive of Brigadiers and
their equivalents. The current MSP per month and the revised rates recommended are as follows:
| Present | Proposed | ||
| i. | Service Officers | Rs.6,000 | Rs.15,500 |
| ii. | Nursing Officers | Rs.4,200 | Rs.10,800 |
| iii. | JCO/ORs | Rs.2,000 | Rs. 5,200 |
| iv. | Non Combatants (Enrolled) in the Air Force | Rs.1,000 | Rs. 3,600 |
Short Service Commissioned Officers: Short Service Commissioned Officers will be allowed to exit the Armed Forces at any point in time between 7 and 10 years of service, with a terminal gratuity equivalent of 10.5 months of reckonable emoluments. They will further be entitled to a fully funded one year Executive Programme or a M.Tech. programme at a premier Institute.
Lateral Entry/Settlement:
The Commission is recommending a revised formulation for
lateral entry/resettlement of defence forces personnel which keeps in
view the specific
requirements of organization to which such personnel will be
absorbed. For lateral entry into CAPFs an attractive severance package
has been
recommended.
Headquarters/Field Parity
: Parity between field and headquarters staff recommended for similar functionaries e.g Assistants and Stenos.
Cadre Review
: Systemic change in the process of Cadre Review for Group A officers recommended.
Allowances
: The Commission has recommended abolishing 52 allowances
altogether. Another 36 allowances have been abolished as separate
identities, but
subsumed either in an existing allowance or in newly
proposed allowances. Allowances relating to Risk and Hardship will be
governed by the proposed
Risk and Hardship Matrix.
Risk and Hardship Allowance:
Allowances relating to Risk and Hardship will be governed by
the newly proposed nine-cell Risk and Hardship Matrix, with one extra
cell at the top,
viz., RH-Max to include Siachen Allowance.
The current Siachen Allowance per month and the revised rates recommended are as follows:
| Present | Proposed | ||
| i. | Service Officers | Rs.21,000 | Rs.31,500 |
| iii. | JCO/ORs | Rs.14,000 | Rs.21,000 |
This would be the ceiling for risk/hardship allowances and there would be no individual RHA with an amount higher than this allowance.
House Rent Allowance:
Since the Basic Pay has been revised upwards, the Commission
recommends that HRA be paid at the rate of 24 percent, 16 percent and 8
percent of the
new Basic Pay for Class X, Y and Z cities respectively. The
Commission also recommends that the rate of HRA will be revised to 27
percent, 18
percent and 9 percent respectively when DA crosses 50
percent, and further revised to 30 percent, 20 percent and 10 percent
when DA crosses 100
percent.
In the case of PBORs of Defence, CAPFs and Indian Coast Guard
compensation for housing is presently limited to the authorised married
establishment
hence many users are being deprived. The HRA coverage has
now been expanded to cover all.
Any allowance not mentioned in the report shall cease to exist.
Emphasis has been placed on simplifying the process of claiming allowances.
Advances:
All non-interest bearing Advances have been abolished.
Regarding interest-bearing Advances, only Personal Computer Advance and
House Building Advance (HBA) have been retained. HBA ceiling has been
increased to Rs.25 lakhs from the present Rs.7.5 lakhs.
Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme (CGEGIS)
: The Rates of contribution as also the insurance coverage
under the CGEGIS have remained unchanged for long. They have now been
enhanced suitably.
The following rates of CGEGIS are recommended:
| Present | Proposed | |||
| Level of Employee | Monthly Deduction
(Rs.) |
Insurance Amount
(Rs.) |
Monthly Deduction
(Rs.) |
Insurance Amount
(Rs.) |
| 10 and above | 120 | 1,20,000 | 5000 | 50,00,000 |
| 6 to 9 | 60 | 60,000 | 2500 | 25,00,000 |
| 1 to 5 | 30 | 30,000 | 1500 | 15,00,000 |
Medical Facilities:
Introduction of a Health Insurance Scheme for Central Government employees and pensioners has been recommended.
Meanwhile, for the benefit of pensioners residing outside the CGHS
areas, CGHS should empanel those hospitals which are already empanelled
under CS
(MA)/ECHS for catering to the medical requirement of these
pensioners on a cashless basis.
All postal pensioners should be covered under CGHS. All postal dispensaries should be merged with CGHS.
Pension:
The Commission recommends a revised pension formulation for
civil employees including CAPF personnel as well as for Defence
personnel, who have
retired before 01.01.2016. This formulation will bring about
parity between past pensioners and current retirees for the same
length of service in the pay scale at the time of retirement.
The past pensioners shall first be fixed in the Pay Matrix being
recommended by the Commission on the basis of Pay Band and Grade Pay at
which they
retired, at the minimum of the corresponding level in the
pay matrix.
This amount shall be raised to arrive at the notional pay of retirees,
by adding number of increments he/she had earned in that level while in
service at the rate of 3 percent.
In the case of defence forces personnel this amount will include Military Service Pay as admissible.
Fifty percent of the total amount so arrived at shall be the new pension.
An alternative calculation will be carried out, which will be a multiple of 2.57 times of the current basic pension.
The pensioner will get the higher of the two.
Gratuity
: Enhancement in the ceiling of gratuity from the existing
Rs.10 lakh to Rs.20 lakh. The ceiling on gratuity may be raised by 25
percent whenever DA
rises by 50 percent.
Disability Pension for Armed Forces:
The Commission is recommending reverting to a slab based
system for disability element, instead of existing percentile based
disability pension
regime.
Ex-gratia Lump sum Compensation to Next of Kin:
The Commission is recommending the revision of rates of lump
sum compensation for next of kin (NOK) in case of death arising in
various
circumstances relating to performance of duties, to be applied uniformly
for the defence forces personnel and civilians including CAPF personnel
.
Martyr Status for CAPF Personnel
: The Commission is of the view that in case of death in the
line of duty, the force personnel of CAPFs should be accorded martyr
status, at par
with the defence forces personnel.
New Pension System
: The Commission received many grievances relating to NPS.
It has recommended a number of steps to improve the functioning of NPS.
It has also
recommended establishment of a strong grievance redressal
mechanism.
Regulatory Bodies
: The Commission has recommended a consolidated pay package
of Rs.4,50,000 and Rs.4,00,000 per month for Chairpersons and Members
respectively of
select Regulatory bodies. In case of retired government
servants, their pension will not be deducted from their consolidated
pay. The consolidated
pay package will be raised by 25 percent as and when
Dearness Allowance goes up by 50 percent. For Members of the remaining
Regulatory bodies
normal replacement pay has been recommended.
Performance Related Pay
: The Commission has recommended introduction of the
Performance Related Pay (PRP) for all categories of Central Government
employees, based on
quality Results Framework Documents, reformed Annual
Performance Appraisal Reports and some other broad Guidelines. The
Commission has also
recommended that the PRP should subsume the existing Bonus
schemes.
There are few recommendations of the Commission where there was no unanimity of view and these are as follows:
The Edge:
An edge is presently accordeded to the Indian Administrative
Service (IAS) and the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) at three promotion
stages from
Senior Time Scale (STS), to the Junior Administrative Grade
(JAG) and the NFSG. is recommended by the Chairman, to be
extended to the Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS).
Shri Vivek Rae, Member is of the view that financial edge is justified
only for the IAS and IFS. Dr. Rathin Roy, Member is of the view that the
financial edge accorded to the IAS and IFS should be
removed.
Empanelment:
The Chairman and Dr. Rathin Roy, Member, recommend that All
India Service officers and Central Services Group A officers who have
completed 17
years of service should be eligible for empanelment under
the Central Staffing Scheme and there should not be “two year edge”,
vis-à-vis the IAS.
Shri Vivek Rae, Member, has not agreed with this view and
has recommended review of the Central Staffing Scheme guidelines.
Non Functional Upgradation for Organised Group ‘A’ Services
: The Chairman is of the view that NFU availed by all the
organised Group `A’ Services should be allowed to continue and be
extended to all
officers in the CAPFs, Indian Coast Guard and the Defence
forces. NFU should henceforth be based on the respective residency
periods in the
preceding substantive grade. Shri Vivek Rae, Member and Dr.
Rathin Roy, Member, have favoured abolition of NFU at SAG and HAG level.
Superannuation:
Chairman and Dr. Rathin Roy, Member, recommend the age of
superannuation for all CAPF personnel should be 60 years uniformly. Shri
Vivek Rae,
Member, has not agreed with this recommendation and has
endorsed the stand of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The full report is available in the website, Click to view.
