Maha budget: Seventh pay commission bonanza for govt employees

The move will benefit around 18 lakh employees, including 7 lakh pensioners, and cost the state Rs23,000 crore

In what may bring cheers to lakhs of its employees, the Maharashtra government on Friday declared that it would implement recommendations of the 7th pay commission from this year. Finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar made the announcement while presenting the budget for 2018-19 in the state assembly. The move will benefit around 18 lakh employees, including 7 lakh pensioners. This will cost the state Rs23,000 crore.

Opposition leaders protest against the budget during the budget session at Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai on Friday. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

The budget has earmarked Rs10,000 crore for 2018-19 alone.

The implementation of the decision will come into effect retrospectively from January 1, 2016. However, the employees will have wait for some more months as the state government appointed KP Bakshi committee is yet to submit its report over revision of pay scale.

After the Centre announced that the recommendations must be implemented from January 1, 2016, state employees demanded immediate implementation. The state government then appointed a committee under retired IAS officer Bakshi with two principal secretaries as members. The committee took charge in April last year, but its terms of references were finalised in July. The committee has recently asked all employees unions to submit their demands and opinions. It has also asked the secretaries of all departments to collate data on number of employees and their pay scale.

The state has around 260 recognised and more than 100 unrecognised unions.

“We have decided to implement recommendations of 7th pay commission from this year. A provision of Rs10,000 crore has also been made for the same,” said DK Jain, additional chief secretary of the finance department. He said the Rs 23,000 crore will be needed if arrears for three years are included retrospectively.

GD Kulthe, chief advisor, Maharashtra Gazetted Officers Association, said, “It is a welcome move. However, the decision will take another five to six months for implementation as Bakshi committee is yet to submit its report and the government will also need some time to start the implementation.”

“We have demanded the implementation of the pay commission to be made on the lines of the central government.”