Pay hike for Maharashtra employees okayed by Devendra Fadnavis cabinet

The much-delayed decision by the Devendra Fadnavis government, to be implemented from January 1, 2019, will take retrospective effect from January 1, 2016 (36 months) and all employees will get salaries as per the revised pay-scales from their February 1 pay packets.

The Devendra Fadnavis cabinet on Thursday decided to implement the seventh pay commission recommendation for its 20.5 lakh employees and pensioners. The pay hike ranges between 21 and 24 per cent and will be put an annual burden of ₹24,485 crore on the state exchequer. The Maharashtra government already has debt burden of ₹4.61 lakh crore.

The Devendra Fadnavis government has decided to give a pay hike to the state’s 17 lakh employees and another five lakh pensioners from January 1. (HT Photo)

The pay hike, which was prolonged for three years in the wake of debt burden, will come into force from January 1.

The pay hike will be implemented with the retrospective effect from January 1, 2016 when the commission came into existence.

The state employees will be paid the arrears from 2016 into their General Provident Fund in five equated instalments in next five years, while pensioners will be paid the arrears in cash in five instalments.

“The pay hike has raised the percentage of expenditure of salary and pension against state revenue to 38% from existing 33%. However, the state finances are in healthy condition as our revenue receipts have witnessed substantial growth,” said Sudhir Mungantiwar, finance minister.