6th Pay Commission Dearness Allowance ends with 6% hike at 125%

6th Pay Commission Dearness Allowance ends with 6% hike at 125%

Cabinet approves 6 percent Dearness Allowance hike for Central Government employees

“In the 7th Pay Commission report, submitted to the government on 19.11.2015, it was mentioned that the DA is assumed to be 125 percent as on 1 January, 2016, the day from which the
Commission expects its recommendations to be implemented by the government. As calculated by the 7th Pay Commission, a six percent Dearness Allowance hike is being given to the Central Government employees.”

The Dearness Allowance (DA) is paid to Central Government employees to adjust the cost of living and to protect their Basic Pay from erosion in the real value on account of inflation. Presently, DA is based on the All India Consumer Price Index (Industrial Workers).

On 23.03.2016, Wednesday, the Centre decided to give a Dearness Allowance of 6 percent to the Central Government employees in order to enable them to manage the price rise and inflation.

On the occasion of Holi, a special cabinet meeting, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was held in New Delhi on 23rd March 2016. At the end of the meeting, Mr. Ravishankar Prasad, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, spoke to the reporters. He said, “The cabinet has decided to issue a Dearness Allowance of six percent to the Central Government employees and pensioners.”

The Dearness Allowance is expected to be calculated from January 1, 2016 onwards. This increases the total Dearness Allowance from 119 percent to 125 percent. More than 50 lakh Central Government employees and 58 lakh pensioners will benefit from this. The government will incur an additional financial burden of Rs.14,725 crores. Dearness Allowance is issued twice a year, based on inflation. The previous Dearness Allowance hike, of six percent, was issued in the month of September 2015, and had a retrospective effect from July 2015 onwards.

This is the last and final instalment of Dearness Allowance calculated by the recommendations of 6th Pay Commission. And, after implementation of 7th Pay Commission the new and first Dearness allowance from 1.7.2016 will be approved by the Cabinet in the middle of September 2016.

Merge DA with Basic this year and Defer Increments: Pay Panel Member

Merge DA with Basic this year and Defer Increments: Pay Panel Member

Member of the Seventh Central Pay Commission Rathin Roy has suggested that to meet its fiscal deficit target the Government should merge the basic pay and dearness allowance (DA) of central government employees in the current year and defer implementing any real increases in pay and pensions. This, the member has said, could be done by compensating those who would have to bear the burden of the deferred effect by giving them a “more generous award distributed over several years”.

“I am saying that the increment need not all be given at one go… It can be staggered and made more generous… So this could be done for pay and for pension,” Dr. Roy told The Hindu in an exclusive interview. “Now I am not competent to say whether this is politically feasible or not,” he, however, added.

Last month, the Union Cabinet set up an empowered committee of secretaries under the Cabinet Secretary for processing the recommendations of the Commission.

The pay and pension revision recommendations of the Commission are scheduled to take effect from January 1, 2016, but Dr. Roy, who is also the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy’s Director, has suggested that the implementation should be pushed to April 1.

What they should get, from April 1, 2016, is what they would get if we merge the basic pay and the DA, which is more or less what they are already getting, he said. “That will mean some increase in allowances but other than house rent allowance the burden of that [on the government budget] will not be very high.” He has also recommended that the Government defer allowances, principally the house rent allowance. “The case for that is strong because we are in the midst of fairly flat growth in consumption expenditure and rents are not going up much.”

Ahead of the presentation of Union Budget 2016-17, the Government is considering options for keeping the fiscal deficit for the next year within the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management target. The Government’s fiscal deficit in 2008-09, the year the Sixth Central Pay Commission award was implemented, doubled to 6 per cent, though not all of the increase was on account of the pay and pension hikes. Currently, Central government pay and allowances account for 1 per cent of the country’s GDP.

The Seventh Pay Commission, which submitted its report in November 2015, estimated that the total financial impact due to the hike in pay and allowances of central government employees recommended by it would be Rs 1,02,100 crore. Of this, Rs 73,650 crore will be borne by the General Budget and Rs. 28,450 crore by the Railway Budget. The Commission was set up by the UPA government in February 2014 to recommend revisions of remuneration for 48 lakh central government employees and 55 lakh pensioners.

Source: The Hindu

Order for Merger of 50% DA, Retirement age news goes viral in Social Media

Order for Merger of 50% DA, Retirement age news goes viral in Social Media

Recently rumour mill went overdrive in social media with the following news that

1.central government decided to Merge 50% DA with basic pay with effect from 1.1.2015 and order will be issued within 15 days

2. Encashment of Earned Leave to be curtailed to 180days instead of existing 300 days.

3.It went on to say that age of Retirement will be on completion of 33 Years of service or at the age of 58 Years whichever is earlier

According to the Social Media , the above strong decisions were taken in last three meeting of cabinet committee to recommend 7th pay commission. Further the post published in social media warned the central government employees that if above decisions are implemented; they should not expect more from 7th Pay Commission. Since it is considered to be the indication of what the think tank of central government will do for its employees.

We enquired about this rumour with one of the Member to the National council JCM, who recently met the 7th Pay Commission. According to him, the central government has firm on its decision not to accept the Merger of DA with Pay, since the due date of the 7th Pay Commission to submit its recommendation is nearing and the central government in many occasions cleared that the recommendation of 7th pay commission will be implemented from 1.1.2016. So there is no question of issuing order for merger of 50% DA with effect from 1.1.2015.

Further he clarified that the present government wanted to use the man-hours of central government employees productively by introducing new systems like bio metric attendance etc. Hence curtailing EL Encashment will lead the central government employees to take more leave if it is not allowed for encashment. So there is no need to implement such proposal as government point of view is against taking leave by Govt officials.

There is mixed response from the sources whether the retirement age of central government employees will be revised or not. It is believed that the present government is in favour of reducing retirement age to 58. But at the same time government doesn’t want loose resources of knowledge gained through experience by reducing retirement age of Government employees. Since the work culture of government service is deteriorating day by day due to various factors , govt would like to retain the experience of the senior Government officials . Anubhav is the one of the initiative introduced by the central government to improve the work culture of youngsters in government service. So there will not be any change in retirement age of central government employees at present.

Source:www.gservants.com

6% DA for TamilNadu State Government Employees from Jan 2015

6% DA for TamilNadu State Government Employees from Jan 2015

An another announcement of hiking in Dearness allowance to the employees of State Government of Tamil Nadu today.

Tamilnadu Chief Minister announces an additional DA to state employees from 1.1.2015.

More than eighteen lakh state government employees will get the hike, which is effective from 1.1.2015.

Following the Central Government, the state government has declared DA to its employees from the existing rate of 107% to 113% with effect from 1.1.2015.

Central Government Employees Federations to observe Protest Day on 5th December

Central Government Employees Federations to observe Protest Day on 5th December

Press Note

CGEC, NOCGE, INTUC
To observe “NATIONAL PROTEST DAY” ON 5th December, 2014
All Over India along with all Central Trade Unions in India

New Delhi, Nagpur,Mumbai,Ranchi, Bangalore, Cochin; 24/10/2014

Central Government Employees Confederation (CGEC); National Organisation of Central Government Employees (NOCGE) and INTUC have unanimously resolved to observe “NATIONAL PROTEST DAY” on 5th December, 2014 all over India along with all Central Trade Unions in India (Viz: INTUC, BMS, CITU, HMS, AITUC, TUCC, AIUTUC, AICCTU, UTUC, SEWA, LPF and all Federations of Banks, Railways (NFIR & AIRF), Defence (INDWF & AIDEF), Insurance, Central/State Govt. and other Service Establishments Employees).

Demands

1. Central Govt. should desist from its unilateral move to amend Labour Laws and consult and honour the views of Central Trade Unions.

2. Central Govt. should withdraw the retrograde move in allowing/hiking Foreign Direct Investment (F.D.I.) in Defence Sector, Railways, Insurance, PSUs and other Sectors.

3. Restore minimum wages of Rs.15,000/- to all the Unorganised/Contract Workers and Minimum Wages of Rs.26,000/- to the lower paid employees of Central Government.

4. Demands of Bank Officers and Bank Employees should be immediately accepted in respect of their Wage Revision and other privileges and social security measures, which are over due (Go through the Circulars dated 14/10/2014 & 16/10/2014 issued by the UFBU, AIBOBOA, INBOC, INBEC and INBEF etc.)

5. Strict implementation of existing Labour Laws concerning the Welfare of the Working Class all over India.

6.Benefits of Regular Workers should be given to all Contract Workers.

7. Compulsory Registration of Trade Unions within 45 days and all the ILO Conventions meant for the Workers should be ratified by the Government. Of India.

8. 50% D.A. of Central Staff should be merged with Pay and Interim Relief should be paid to all employees, pending finalisation of the 7th Central Pay Commission.

9. Minimum 4 Promotions should be given to all Central Govt. Officials, without the hindrances of Departmental Examinations and DPC proceedings, on or before their respective date of retirements.

10. MACP/ACP benefits should be extended to all Central Government Employees, including the staff of Autonomous Body/Semi-Govt. Departments.

11. Bonus eligibility and Bonus Ceiling should be raised as per the present Price Index Cost of Living and Updated Model of Pay Structure.

12. Present quantum of Pension should be raised with adequate Medical facilities/Medical Allowance and the New Pension Scheme should be liberalised as Worker-Friendly.

Accordingly, all the Unions, Associations and their Federations are requested to observe “NATIONAL PROTEST DAY” on 5th December, 2014 by way of Mass Demonstrations and Mass Protest Meetiungs & Rallies all over India and give wide publicity through Newspapers, T.V. Channels and AIR/Doordarshan etc. Concerned Office-bearers are requested to send a report after observing the above programme of action to the undersigned on or before 15/12/2014.

Source: NOCGE News

Is Interim Relief Likely for Central Government Employees?

Is Interim Relief Likely for Central Government Employees?

Is it really possible for Central Government employees to get an interim relief this time? Let us look at it in detail.

‘Interim Relief’ may be defined as the temporary relief given to employees before the new Pay Commission’s recommendations are implemented. ‘Interim relief will be treated sui generis’, most of the Finance Ministry orders included the sentence when sanctioning interim relief.

If one looks at the interim relief granted in 1983 and 1993, it can also be inferred that interim relief is granted in order to correct the errors in salary revision once every ten years. One gets the feeling as if an entire Pay Commission was lost simply for the sake of a small hike.

During the previous Pay Commission, particularly in 5th CPC, since 50% DA Merger was granted, there was no interim relief.

Here are some of the reasons why interim relief is normally granted :

* It has been granted a number of times before, in the past.
* DA Merger hasn’t been sanctioned this time
* Prices have touched the skies
* Some errors in the formulation of once-in-a-decade Pay Commission…etc.,

Reasons cited for the Government’s refusal to sanction DA Merger/interim relief:

* 7th Pay Commission was constituted at the right time.
* There was no recommendation for DA Merger in the 6th Pay Commission
* There was a recommendation against DA merger in the 6th Pay Commission (the Commission is, therefore, not recommending merger of dearness allowance with basic pay at any stage).
* In the event that the Price Index is taken as 115.76 instead of 306.33 for the DA calculations.

All the Central Government Employees Unions and Federations are functioning with the intention of getting the DA merged with the basic pay. If that doesn’t happen, these federations are hoping that interim relief will be offered through the 7th Pay Commission’s interim report.

This is very much possible if Modi Government is willing to accept the demand.

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Urgent meeting of the Staff Side of JCM (National Council) on 12.10.2014

Urgent meeting of the Staff Side of JCM (National Council) on 12.10.2014

JCM National Council, Staff Side Meeting on 12th October 2014 – To give final shape and formulate strategy to have vigorous campaign at Grass Root level.

In view of the Government of India’s in different attitude in the major issues viz Merger of Dearness – Allowance, Payment of Interim Relief and date of effect of Recommendations of 7th CPC i.e. from 1.1.2014, an URGENT MEETING of the Staff Side of JCM, (National Council) shall be held at 12.00 hrs on 12.10.2014 in the Staff Side office 13-C, Ferozshah Road New Delhi – 110001, to discuss and finalize future course of action.

Source: CGEN.in
#DA Merge with Basic Pay, #DA Merger, #Interim Relief, #JCM Meeting, #JCM Meeting