7th Pay Commission report recommended that a 23.55 per cent hike in salary, allowances and pension involving an additional burden of Rs 102,000 crore has been recommended to central government employees and pensioners. The Seventh Pay Commission report more than doubled the entry and top level pay while favouring a virtual One Rank One Pension (OROP) for civilians.
The 900-page report of the 7th Pay Commission headed by Justice A K Mathur was presented to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley with a recommendation that the new scales be implemented from January 1, 2016.
The panel recommended a 14.27 per cent increase in basic pay, the lowest in 70 years. The previous 6th Pay Commission had recommended a 20 per cent hike which the government doubled while implementing it in 2008. The 23.55 per cent increase includes hike in allowances.
Here are the top 5 key takeaways:
1. 7th Pay Commission report recommends gratuity, fully-funded 1-yr course- Seeking to infuse more young blood into the armed forces via the Short Service Commission, the 7th Pay Commission recommended that they be paid gratuity and entitled to a fully-funded one-year course at a premier institute of higher learning.
- The Commission has also recommended the maximum risk and hardship allowance to the Army personnel posted at Siachen, the world’s highest battlefield.
- In a bid to incentivise the Short Service Commission (SSC), the Pay Commission recommended that officers be allowed to exit the Armed Forces at any point in time between 7 and 10 years of service, with a terminal gratuity equivalent of 10.5 months of reckonable emoluments.
- The 7th Pay Commission has batted for granting “martyr” status to personnel of central paramilitary forces, on the lines of armed forces.
- “The Commission is of the view that in case of death in the line of duty, the force personnel of Central Armed Police Forces should be accorded martyr status, at par with the defence forces personnel,” the recommendations submitted by the Commission said.
- The report was submitted to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
- Associations of retired paramilitary forces and those serving have time and again said that they should be accorded such a status.
- The 7th Pay Commission has recommended creating a new matrix for risk and hardship allowance for security and defence forces personnel even as it said that the top grade Military Service Pay (MSP) should be granted only to defence forces.
- The Commission, which submitted its report, said they have proposed to create a new “nice-cell risk and hardship matrix” with one extra cell at the top for army troops deployed along the Siachen glacier, the world’s coldest and highest battle field.
- “The Military Service Pay, which is a compensation for the various aspects of military service, will be admissible to the Defence forces personnel only,” it said.
- The 7th Pay Commission today recommended more than doubling the ‘Military Service Pay’ to defence personnel, and suggested that Short Service Commissioned Officers should be allowed to exit the Armed Forces at any point in time between 7 and 10 years of service.
- The Commission, which submitted its report to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, also recommended a significant increase in ‘Risk and Hardship Allowance’.
- “The Military Service Pay (MSP), which is a compensation for the various aspects of military service, will be admissible to the Defence forces personnel only. As before, Military Service Pay will be payable to all ranks up to and inclusive of Brigadiers and their equivalents,” the report said.
- In case of ‘Service Officers’, the panel recommended to increase the MSP to Rs 15,500 from the present Rs 6,000, and in case of ‘Nursing Officers’ Rs 10,800 from Rs 4,200.
- The 7th Pay Commission report recommended ‘One Rank One Pension’ (OROP) for all employees, including defence personnel and civilian government employees, retiring before January 1 next year.
- “This formulation will bring about parity between past pensioners and current retirees for the same length of service in the pay scale at the time of retirement,” read an official statement.
- “The past pensioners shall first be fixed in the pay matrix being recommended by the Commission on the basis of pay band and grade pay at which they retired, at the minimum of the corresponding level in the pay matrix. This amount shall be raised to arrive at the notional pay of retirees, by adding number of increments he/she had earned in that level while in service at the rate of 3 percent,” it said.
- The statement further added: “In the case of defence forces personnel, this amount will include military service pay as admissible.”