In a major bonanza for government employees, the 6th PayCommission of the Punjab Government has recommended an over 2-fold increase insalaries of all employees, with an increase in minimum pay from Rs 6950 to Rs18000 per month, with retrospective effect from January 1, 2016.
The Commission has suggested major hikes in salary andother major benefits, and also a substantial increase in allowances forgovernment employees. The averageincrement in salaries and pensions of employees is expected in the range of20%, with salaries in for a 2.59 times increase over the 5th Pay Commissionrecommendations. All major allowancesare proposed to be revised upward, translating into a 1.5X to 2X increase, withrationalization in certain allowances, as per the recommendations of the 6thPay Commission.
The report, which was submitted to Punjab Chief MinisterCapt. Amarinder Singh recently has been sent to the Finance Department fordetailed study and directions for placing it before the Cabinet this month forfurther action. The report, as per the government’s commitment in the Vidhan Sabha,is to be implemented from July 1 this year.
Incidentally, the report comes at a time when the state’seconomy is already deeply stressed and the financial situation is precarious,amid Coivd, with taxes not going up and even GST compensation slated to endfrom next year. The Finance Department will examine the various implicationsbefore submitting the report to the Cabinet for further action.
According to a spokesperson of the CM’s office, a significant hike has been proposed in the report in Pensions and DA, whileFixed Medical Allowance and Death cum Retirement Gratuity are recommended to bedoubled under the scheme suggested by the 6th Pay Commission. While fixedmedical allowance has been recommended to be doubled to Rs 1000/- per month foremployees as well as pensioners uniformly, the maximum limit of Death cumRetirement Gratuity is proposed to be enhanced from Rs. 10.00 lakh to Rs. 20.00 lakh.
Enhancement in ex-gratia grant rates in the case of deathof government employees, as also in case of death in harness directlyattributable to the duty performed, is another key recommendation aimed atbenefitting government employees. This is significant in view of the prevailingpandemic crisis, where a large number of government employees are working asfrontline workers, with many of them losing their lives in the line of duty.
The Commission has also suggested doubling of designallowance to engineering staff and Kit maintenance allowance to Policepersonnel, with mobile allowance enhancement varying from Rs. 375 to Rs. 750.
While implementation of the recommendations relating topay and pension has been recommended from 01.01.2016, those relating toallowances are recommended from the date of notification by the Government.Recommendations of the Commission would likely lead to an additionalexpenditure of Rs. 3500 crores per annumw.e.f. 01.01.2016, said an official spokesperson.
The Commission has further recommended that the presentsystem of dearness allowance on Central pattern should continue and dearnessallowance be converted into Dearness Pay each time the index increases by 50%,to be counted for all purposes including retirement benefits. For Pensions, therevision suggested by the Commission is by the application of a simple factorof 2.59. Further, Pension should continue to be paid @ 50% of the last paydrawn, on completion of 25 years of qualifying service, as per the Commissionrecommendations.
Besides recommending a simple, transparent, and easy toimplement Pay Matrix for all Punjab government employees, the Commission hassuggested that old age allowance for pensioners and family pensioners, at theexisting intervals of 5 years from the age of 65 years onwards, should continueon revised pension. It has also recommended commutation of pension to berestored to 40%.
Though the existing classification of the categories ofcities for HRA is proposed to be retained, with rationalization in house rentallowance (by a factor of 0.8 of the existing rates and calculated as apercentage of basic pay, the Commission has recommended the introduction of severalnew allowance categories, including higher education allowance in the form oflump sum rate for all employees acquiring higher qualifications.
As part of the rationalization process, the Commissionhas recommended the abolition of all types of special pay and any add-ons in thebasic pay by any nomenclature. It has also rationalized the changes made on therecommendations of the Cabinet Sub-committee in 2011.
The Commission, appointed by the then state government onFebruary 24, 2016, submitted its report on April 30, 2021. Chaired by Jai SinghGill, IAS (retd), it currently has DS Kalha as Member and SS Rajput as MemberSecretary.