7th Pay Commission: Higher allowances to be paid after Budget

7th Pay Commission: Higher allowances to be paid after Budget

New Delhi: The higher allowances under 7th pay commission is set to be paid to central government employees and pensioners after the budget 2017-18.

A top official in the Finance Ministry told The Sen Times on the condition on anonymity, “Government is very pleased to pay the higher allowances to its employees after Budget.”

He added that the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had earlier expressed confidence that the currency shortage would be mitigated after December 30.

“The acute cash crunch in banks and ATMs that prevailed for a month following the demonetization move of the government has eased from January 1, as the daily withdrawal limit from ATMs has been increased from Rs 2,500 to Rs 4,500. Hence, the Finance Ministry felt it would be wiser to announce of higher allowances after Budget.” the official revealed.

Currently, the central government employees are getting hike in basic pay with retrospective effect from January 2016 under the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission but they are getting allowances according to the 6th Pay Commission recommendations.

The 7th pay commission had recommended of abolishing 51 allowances and subsuming 37 others out of 196 allowances, so the government referred hike in allowances other than dearness allowance to the ‘Committee on Allowances’ headed by the Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa for examination.

The ‘Committee on Allowances’ has finalized the report on the allowances in October, however the government gave extension the committee till February 22, 2017 to submit its report.

TST