7th Pay Commission: Fitment Panel Report Likely Today

Bhubaneswar: The wait could be excruciating for some, but good news might be on its way as the fitment committee constituted for implementation of 7th Pay Commission’s recommendations is likely to submit its report today.

Earlier, the fitment committee was supposed to submit its report on February 28 which was extended by 2 months. With the extended deadline ending an important meeting of the committee is scheduled today to review the draft prepared by the committee.

According to sources, the draft has been prepared keeping in mind the current salary, scale of pay, dearness allowance and the rank of the government employees.

“We have identified some issues. It is a process and we have already held a meeting in this regard. We will have another meeting and the future course of action will be decided,” said fitment panel chairman R Balakrishnan.

“We would urge that the report of the fitment committee be presented before the government tomorrow and salaries revised by the first week of May,” said Krushnaprasad Mohapatra, general secretary of Sachivalaya Sewa Sangh.

On the other hand, in the 2017-18 annual State Budget the State government has not clarified whether it has made any budgetary allocations for implementation the 7th Pay Commission recommendation.  However, under the administration head, the government has proposed Rs 47, 466 crore in the 2017-18 budget. Out of this, Rs 22,000 crore has been allocated for salaries and Rs 11,313 crores for pension.

With the implementation of the pay panel recommendations the additional burden is likely to be Rs 5,000 crore on the government. It is expected that there will be a hike of 23% in the basic pay of a government employee.