The UPA - II Government is going to decide about the General Election dates in March 2013 and before that the news is that Government employees may get there 50 % DA merged into the basic pay. Alongwith this decision, the government will also announce its decision for raising retirement age of government employees to 62. And in a separate news, the Government will constitute the for 7th Pay Commission. We take a look at all the above information one by one.
The Pay Panel is to be constituted before March as per reports available. The Central government has already made SBG (Budget Grant) provision of Rs.3.5 crores towards constitution of the Panel in this fiscal year 2013-14. Once constituted, the 7th Pay Commission will be mandated to submit its report in two years i.e. by March 2016. UPA-II will also be following the laid practice of naming a former Supreme Court Judge to head the commission and its other members would include experts and officials. Though the date of implementation of 7th Pay Commission is 1.1.2016, it will be in the hands of the Party which wins the General Elections in 2014.
The second news that is making rounds is that DA of 50 % is to be merged with your basic pay. The 6th pay commission explicitly not allowed the merger of DA with Basic as soon as it crosses 50 %
"The 6th Central Pay Commission had recommended not to merge Dearness Allowance with basic pay at any stage,"
But since its election time and with the fast soaring inflation, it may seem that UPA-II might just agree to this demand. In any case, if it were to decide to merge 50 % DA with basic, it has to do so before March because at that point and time it will be 100 % (90% current plus 10 % from 1.1.2014.) There is also the impact of 25% rise in all allowance in case DA crosses 50 % for government to consider.
The file concerning the raising of age of retirement of government servant to 62 is under due consideration in Ministry of Finance as of now. With the Elections due in May-June, the Finance Ministry will have a interim budget this year for fiscal 2014-15 and the vote-on-account for this Interim Budget is scheduled to be in an around 2nd week of February 2014. So without putting too much expectations on the budget 2014-15, we can hope that this two important matters are approved in this interim budget.
What makes the decisions difficult for the UPA-II is the utter failure of the popularist measures and freebies announced by it prior to the recently concluded state elections in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhatisgarh. Some of the psephologists have blamed these freebies for the whitewash UPA suffered in these state elections. This actually makes it a little more difficult for those who are in favour of announcing populist measures before the General Election dates are announced.
Government servants can keep their fingers crossed and hope that UPA-II is in a full Election mode.
Updtate : 50 % DA merger approved by Cabinet 20.2.2014 Read here
Updtate : 50 % DA merger approved by Cabinet 20.2.2014 Read here
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