7th Pay Commission: Soldiers to get revised salaries from September

Fourteen lakh army personnel will receive revised salaries, recommended by the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC), September onwards. The three service chiefs have given the government more time to separately resolve "core pay anomalies" at a later date.

Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (CoSC) Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha issued directions to all service headquarters -- the army, navy and the air force -- asking them to take the requisite steps for implementation of the 7th Pay Commission.

The decision was taken after Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar made an appeal to the service chiefs -- ACM Raha, General Dalbir Singh Suhag and Admiral Sunil Lanba. Parrikar assured them that the government will resolve the "core pay anomalies" at the earliest with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Parrikar has already discussed the matter with the PM," an anonymous source told the Times of India.

Service headquarters on 9 September had told their personnel around the country that they had asked the government to keep "in abeyance" the implementation of the 7th CPC for them till the persisting core anomalies were resolved.

The issue of core pay anomalies refers to comparative discrepancies in salaries between army personnel and their civilian counterparts and bureaucrats. For instance, the disability pension for an additional secretary is Rs 70,000 and that of a three-star general only Rs 27,000. The army has also maintained that when compared to their counterparts, successive pay commissions have degraded their status, parity and equivalence.

"Anomalies of the 6th CPC, incidentally , have not been resolved till now despite promises. Let's see if they are resolved now," said an IAF officer.