Seventh Central Pay Commission approved by Prime Minister of India

Prime Minister of India Approved Constitution of Seventh Central Pay Commission

Finance Minister P.Chidambaram announced on 25 September 2013 that the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh approved the constitution of the Seventh Central Pay Commission. Pay Commission, which will go into the salaries, allowances and pensions of about 80 lakh of its employees and pensioners. The average time taken by a Pay Commission to submit its recommendations is around 2 years. In context with this, it is expected that the recommendations of 7th CPC will be implemented with effect from 1 January 2016.

The setting up of the Commission, whose recommendations will benefit about 50 lakh central government employees, including those in defence and railways, and about 30 lakh pensioners, comes ahead of the Assembly elections in 5 states in November and the general elections next year.

Since the year 1947, six pay commissions have been set up from time to time in order to review as well as make recooemndations on the work and pay structure of civil and military divisions of the Government of India. Government constitutes Pay Commission almost every ten years to revise the pay scales of its employees and often these are adopted by states after some modification.

The sixth Pay Commission was implemented from January 1, 2006, fifth from January 1, 1996 and fourth from January 1, 1986.

The names of the chairperson and members of the 7th Pay Commission and its terms of reference will be finalised shortly after consultation with major stakeholders, Chidambaram said.

About the Central Pay Commission

• The first Central Pay Commission was constituted in May 1946 and its report was submitted by 1947 under the Chairmanship of Srinivasa Varadachariar. The first Central Pay Commission was based on the basic idea of living wages to employees.

• The approval of last or the sixth Central Pay Commission was given in July 2006. The commission was established under the Chairmanship of B.N.Srikrishna with the time duration of 18 months.

• The constitution of the Seventh Pay Commission will include salaries, allowances and pensions of around 80 lakh employees as well as pensioners.

• Recommendations of the Commission will provide benefit to around 50 lakh employees of the Central Government, who also include defence and railways. Apart from this, it will also provide benefit to 30 lakh pensioners.

• The Union Government of India constitutes the Pay Commission after almost 10 years time frame in order to revise the pay scales of employees. The recommendations of Pay Commission are always adopted by all the states in India after a few modifications.