7th pay commission: Humming economy, 2019 general elections likely to boost pay hike chances

7th pay commission: Although the expectations of the central government employees were dampened when Centre had earlier denied any chance of a pay hike beyond the recommendation of the Seventh Pay Commission anytime soon, but the employees are again hopeful that Modi government would fulfil their demands of hike in minimum basic pay. The reasons behind the regained hope are the strong quarterly GDP growth numbers and the 2019 general election.

At present, according to the fitment formula of 2.57x, the central government employees are getting their salaries. Fitment factor is a figure used by 7th Pay commission with which the basic pay as under 6th CPC regime (i.e Pay in Pay band + Grade pay) is multiplied in order to fix basic pay in revised pay structure (i.e 7th CPC). Fitment factor formulated by 7th CPC is 2.57.

Modi government had recently cleared the move under the seventh pay commission to revise the pension of retired faculty and other non-teaching staff in central universities and colleges under the 7th CPC. This would benefit around retired 27 lakh employees.

Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar also tweeted, "Around 25,000 present pensioners will benefit in Central Universities and the UGC maintained deemed to be universities to the tune of Rs 6000 to Rs 18, 000."  

Besides the pensioners, Modi government's latest decision would also impact approximately 23 lakh employees, those got retired from state universities and affiliated colleges and also those who have adopted the prescribed pay scales.

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A few months ago, Minister of State for Finance P Radhakrishnan in Lok Sabha had said that the Prime Minister's Narendra Modi government is not planning to give any hike in minimum basic salary beyond the recommendations of the 7th pay commission. He said that the government at present had no plans increase the minimum salary beyond the seventh pay commission recommendations, denying the reports hinting towards the salary hike.

However, before that, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, on 30th June 2016, had promised to look positively at hiking pay package beyond the recommendations of 7th pay Commission. Some 50 lakh employees and a similar number of pensioners are making the demands for a pay hike. 

As the economy grows by leaps and bounds and 2019 general elections draw near, central government employees may get to hear some good news. Earlier an amount of hike that was being bandied about could come into the equation too. That was a fitment factor hike of 3.00 times.