7th Pay Commission: Over 8.77 lakh government employees and pensioners to get arrears from March

The Gujarat government on Friday, March 2, announced that all government employees and pensioners will receive arrears from the 7^th Central Pay Commission this month onwards.

The payment will be made in three monthly instalments – alternate months -- said Gujarat deputy chief minister and finance minister Nitin Patel in the assembly. This will benefit about 4.65 lakh Gujarat government employees and over 4.12 lakh pensioners, setting the exchequer back by about Rs Rs 3,279 crore.

"As the 7th CPC was implemented with retrospective effect, employees and pensioners are eligible for arrears. The arrears will be paid from March onwards and in three instalments every alternate months. Employees will get arrears for seven months and pensioners for nine. These benefits will go to 4.65 lakh employees and 4.12 lakh pensioners of the Gujarat government," the Times of India quoted Patel as saying.

On Friday, the Odisha government also said that the recommendations of the 7^th Central Pay Commission would be implemented in regards to employees and pensioners of public sector undertakings in the state.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik asked the department to revise salaries as per the recommendations of the 7^th CPC and this will come into effect from January 1, 2016, reported the Press Trust of India. 

The state government had implemented the recommendations for government employees on August 29, 2017, but PSU employees were still waiting for the order.

The Central government had approved the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission in June 2016. The minimum pay was raised to Rs 18,000 a month from Rs 7,000. The employees had demanded a raise in minimum salary to Rs 26,000 and it was also said that the figures could be raised to Rs 21,000 per month. However, nothing was confirmed.