Now, 5 states including West Bengal, Punjab and UP ask Centre to delay implementing 7th pay panel report

THE government has not shown an urgency as yet in implementing the 7th Central Commission Report submitted a month ago, and if this report of five states formally asking the Centre to go slow on implementing the report turns factually correct, the government may take it easy even further in giving a handsome pay hike to about 5 million government employees as being recommended by Justice AK Mathur-headed pay panel. As state governments usually need to follow the Central Pay Commission recommendations and hike pay and allowances of the state employees too, as many as five states -- West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha – have now written to…
the Centre to delay the implementation of the 7th Central Pay Commission report citing their fiscal health and inability to absorb such a huge financial burden, according to a report published in The Indian Express today. For the Centre, the implementation of the report as it is, means a total burden of Rs 10,2100 crore on the exchequer, and if the same formula is adopted by the states, there will be a huge burden on the existing fiscal conditions of the states as well.
According to the news report, these states have approached the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), cabinet secretary and Niti Aayog, seeking more time in implementing the pay panel’s report. It’s however not legally binding on the states to implement the Pay Commission’s report once the Centre implements those. But the states are bound to follow the Centre so as to arrest the salary gap between Central government employees and those of the state governments grow very big.
The Indian Express in its report quoted Uttar Pradesh chief secretary and 1978 batch IAS Alok Ranjan as saying that the state was yet to assess the fiscal implication of the Seventh Pay Commission’s recommendations. The other states too have not confirmed on record that they want a delay.
At the Centre, an empowered committee of secretaries will decide the implementation of the pay commission’s report before sending the proposal to union cabinet. The panel is not formed as yet. An implementation cell has however been formed under the department of revenue, which is the secretariat for implementing the pay panel recommendations.
According to sources, it may take six to eight months for the union cabinet to take the final decision on the 7th Central Pay Commission’s recommendations. The effective date of implementation may however remain as January 1, 2016. So, it’s unlikely that 2016 Diwali will come much early for the government employees!