7th Pay Commission: Union cabinet likely to discuss revised allowances this week, NJCA tells govt employees

In a letter to Central government employees, NJCA general secretary Shiv Gopal Mishra informed them about his meeting with Cabinet Secretary on June 15. 

The Narendra Modi-led Cabinet is likely to decide on revised allowances for Central government allowances this week.

The Union cabinet skipped the issue of revised allowances in the previous two meetings but is expected to take it up this week before Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicks off his Portugal-US-Netherlands trip this weekend.

Reports hint that the House Rent Allowance (HRA) for Central government employees is likely to be fixed at 27 per cent, 18 per cent and 9 per cent for X, Y and Z cities respectively under the Seventh Pay Commission.

The general secretary of National Joint Council of Action (NJCA)--NJCA is holding talks with the government on behalf of employees--recently met Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha and raised the issue of delay in allowances with him.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED AT THE MEETING WITH CABINET SECRETARY AND OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

In a letter to Central government employees, NJCA general secretary Shiv Gopal Mishra informed them about his meeting with Cabinet Secretary on June 15. The NJCA official expressed "anguish regarding non-settlement of demands of Central government employees, particularly non-approval of the allowances by the Cabinet".

NJCA general secretary said that he was assured by the Cabinet Secretary that "things are in the process and most probably would be placed in the next Cabinet meeting".

The Union Cabinet meets every Wednesday but this time June 21 (a Wednesday) is being celebrated as Yoga Day. The NJCA general secretary said that he was given assurance by the Cabinet Secretary that the decision on allowances would be taken up at the meeting which could happen a day or two later. "We hope that the matter of allowances would be settled within this month," said Shiv Gopal Mishra.

"We have come to know from reliable sources that the Committee on National Pension System (NPS) has also submitted its report and some serious discussion is on for its implementation," NJCA general secretary said.

Earlier, some reports had suggested that the Narendra Modi government could start rolling out revised allowances from July, more than a year after the Union cabinet had okayed the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission in June last year.

The Seventh Pay Commission recommended axing 53 of the 196 allowances for Central government employees besides merging 36 smaller allowances into bigger ones. It also suggested bringing down the HRA rates for by varying degrees depending on the type of city.

The Ashok Lavasa Committee on Allowances, which was tasked with reviewing the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission, submitted its report to Arun Jaitley on April 27. The Lavasa report was sent to the Department of Expenditure for a first round of review and then placed before the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS) for another round of screening.

After screening the Ashok Lavasa report on allowances, the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS) forwarded the report along with its suggestions to the government following a June 1 meeting.

Source - NDTV