Chandigarh, August 7
The much-awaited assured promotional scale for employees, popularly known as the ‘‘4-9-14’’ promotion benefit, will not come up for formal approval at the meeting of the Punjab Council of Ministers scheduled for August 10. Also, the proposal to increase the age of retirement from 58 to 60 years is not on the agenda, well-placed sources confirmed today.
Meanwhile, the issue of setting up a new pay commission for employees will come up at the meeting. The Central Government has already announced the setting up of a new pay commission.
The benefits to employees, which had been discussed by a panel of senior officers, will be only discussed at the meeting. Various permutations and combinations relating to the implementation of these two benefits will be placed before the Cabinet before a final agenda is placed on record, and that could at the next meeting likely to be held in the last week of August.
The sources in the government said in all possibility the promotional scale could not be granted with retrospective effect as this would mean a financial burden running into thousands of crores of rupees. Senior functionaries have suggested that the promotional benefit be given with prospective effect. This will entail a financial burden of only Rs 17 crore to Rs 19 crore per month, which should not be much for the government to bear.
Also on the agenda are details of the abolition of octroi. This will include modalities of revenue sharing along with the apportioning of collections made through value added tax (VAT) to the municipalities.
