New Delhi: The new allowances won’t cut the existing facilities enjoyed by Central government employees despite the 7th pay commission recommendation to abolish it, the Finance Ministry sources said.
“Whatever the Finance Secretary Committee on allowances decides, it will go to the Cabinet,” said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
“The committee under Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa has been set up to examine the suggestions of the 7th Pay Commission on allowances, is constantly in touch with the Prime Minister’s Officer (PMO) and discussed scrapping of allowances issues with them, which were recommended by the pay commission for abolishing,” sources said.
“The PMO has sent its directive and it says that existing privileges cannot be curtailed. Betterment must be done for central government employees by protecting the current facilities,” they added.
The central government had no intention to cut current scope and facilities, they stressed.
They said the 7th Pay Commission had suggested curtailment of the facilities in the allowances being enjoyed by central government employees but the report of Finance Secretary committee, which is underway, would not do it.
The 7th Pay Commission had recommended abolition of 51 allowances and subsuming 37 others out of 196 existing allowances.
The representatives of the employees unions had earlier conveyed to the centre that they did not want it to approve the 7th Pay Commission recommendations on allowances without examining them further.
So cabinet referred it to the Finance Secretary committee to examine, when it cleared the recommendations of 7th Pay Commission in respect of the hike in basic pay and pension on June 29.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in Rajya Sabha in this month, “These measures are radical in nature, even the employees’ unions have given their suggestions in the matter and therefore the committee has been formed to look into allowances. Whatever the committee decides, it will go to the Cabinet.”
The meeting of the Finance Secretary Committee on allowances already took place, which hints that time is ripe for hike in allowances.
It is noted that no arrears for allowances will be paid, as per usual practice, the allowances would be paid from the date of implementation.
No comments:
Post a Comment