7th Pay Commission: Central govt employees keep fingers crossed, as Centre hikes minimum MSP

7th Pay Commission: The issue of central government employees pay hike has been a long-pending issue. These employees are demanding minimum pay and fitment factor hike beyond the 7th CPC recommendations for long. However, the government has not yet considered their demands yet. These employees say that since inflation has gone up substentially, salary hike the Centre has given under the 7th Pay Commission is not enough to cover the loss. They are demanding that minimum pay be hiked to Rs. 26000 per month from current Rs. 18000. 
They want the fitment factor be hiked from 2.57 to 3.68 times. As the government hiked the MSP for farm produce, these employees are hoping that this does not prove too inflationary. This will increase spending by farmers, thereby boosting inflation. Instead, employees are hoping they see the begining of the government sops for them ahead of Lok Sabha elections. Otherwise they may have to wait a year!  Many believe that the government may hike minimum pay before the elections. 
However, salary hike will depend on sufficiency off funds with government exchequer. Notably, the government recently stopped overtime payments for government employees, except those who are in operational roles.

The government has so far not announced or spoken anything on the matter. Earlier, the Minister of State for Finance P. Radhakrishnan in Lok Sabha had said the government was not planning to hike minimum basic salary beyond the recommendations of the seventh pay commission. If the Narendra Modi government hikes the minimum pay and fitment factor, it will benefit nearly 50 lakh employees and a similar number of pensioners too. Pay hikes, however, lead to spike in spending and this boosts inflation.