New Delhi, October 5
The government today announced the constitution of a four-member sixth Central Pay Commission thus paving the way for the revision of salaries of over 33 lakh central government employees, and raising hope among public sector and state government employees for revision of salaries at a later stage.
The Commission headed by Justice B.N. Srikrishna will submit its report within 18 months, according to a notification issued by the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, here today.
Besides Justice Srikrishna, the other members of the Commission are Ravindra Dholakia, J S Mathur and Sushama Nath (member-Secretary).
In addition to central government employees, the Commission would also recommend new pay structure of officers and employees of the regulatory bodies and personnel of armed forces among others.
The commission has been set up following Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s announcement to set up the commission to review the salary structure of the public sector, which is facing poaching of professional by the private sector through higher pay-packets.
Official sources said though the revision of salaries is expected to put an additional burden of at least Rs 20,000 crore on the central exchequer annually, but it
will take over two years to implement the recommendations. The price rise and increasing revenue and profits in the public sector would, however, partially set off the expected losses.
Finance Ministry sources ruled out any major impact of revision of salary structure on fiscal deficit targets and Plan expenditure. Further, over two million employees have been brought down in the government sector since implementation of the Fifth Pay
Commission. They said conditions had changed in several respects since the last Pay Commission made its report in 1997.
Appreciating the contribution of the public sector, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had recently emphasised the need for productivity linked salary structure to keep talented persons.
The Commission will also examine the desirability and the need to sanction any interim relief till the time its recommendations are made and accepted by the government.
The terms of reference of the commission also include making recommendations for pension, gratuity for those employees appointed before January 1, 2004, as after this date new recruits are under the defined contributory pension scheme instead of defined benefit.
The pay panel will also make recommendations on bonus payment and feasibility of introducing productivity-linked incentive scheme.
It will also suggest ways to transform the Central Government organisations into modern, professional and citizen friendly entities.
