The demand by about 47 lakh Central government employees is likely to be heard at the cabinet happens to conduct a meeting for the same today at 5 pm.
The cabinet is likely to approve the House Rent Allowance (HRA) at the meeting. The demand for salary hike started brewing in the air post the 7th Pay Commission report which was approved by the Central Government on June 29, 2016.
Why has the HRA hike delayed?
Despite a comprehensive report submitted by the Empowered Committee of Secretaries’ (E-CoS) to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on June 1, the approval got delayed due to multiple technical glitches in the software.
7th pay commission: A brief glance at the suggested changes
Headed by AK Mathur, the commission suggested a slew of changes in its 2015 Commission report which was duly approved by the Central Government. Here is a brief list of changes suggested by the Pay Commission.
- Scrapping of 52 allowances besides clubbing of 36 grants under other grants
- Slashing down HRA in accordance with the city posted.
- The 3 respective slabs for cutting HRA decided as 24 per cent, 16 per cent and 8 per cent
- The 6th Pay Commission had set this rate at 30 per cent, 20 per cent and 10 per cent
Employees’ response to the 7th pay commission
A 2% hike in dearness allowance was suggested. However, in the wake of inflating prices, the employees weren’t impressed by the suggested hike.
The employees serving in railways said they were clueless about the possibility of a hike in HRA and DA. They are sanguine about the cabinet’s verdict.
The 7th pay commission suggested the lowest hike of 14.27 percent, as compared to the previous Commission reports over the past 70 years.
The focal point of today’s meeting will be HRA and other related allowances. Today’s cabinet meeting is anticipated to be the last meeting to be held in June.
