More than one crore central government employees will get a pay hike after the Cabinet approved the implementation of the recommendations of the Seventh Central Pay Commission.

While the quantum of increase will be revealed at an official briefing on the Cabinet decisions to take place at 5.30 PM, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tweeted on his official Twitter page, “Congratulations to central government officers, employees and pensioners on a historic rise in their salary and allowances through the Seventh Central Pay Commission.”

The report submitted by the commission in November last year recommended a 14.27 per cent hike in basic pay at junior levels, 23.55 per cent overall hike in salaries, allowances and pension. The entry level pay was recommended to be raised to ₹ 18,000 per month from the current ₹ 7,000 a month while maximum pay, drawn by the Cabinet Secretary, had been fixed at ₹ 2.5 lakh per month, up from ₹ 90,000 per month.

In April, the Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha had informed the Rajya Sabha that the hikes would put an additional burden of ₹ 1.02 lakh crore or 0.7 per cent of GDP on the exchequer in 2016-17.

All you wanted to know about Seventh Pay Commission

Report of the Seventh Central Pay Commission

Other decisions

In other decisions, sources in the know of the development said that the National Mineral Exploration Policy has also been approved by the Cabinet.

Under the policy, the Mines Ministry proposes to invite the private sector into exploration of mineral deposits by giving them a certain share in the revenue from mining operations after the area is auctioned. Further details of the policy will be revealed at the media briefing later in the day.

Sources also said that the Cabinet approved the Model Shops & Establishment Bills, 2016 which would allow neighbourhood stores to remain open 24 x 7 throughout the year, if they choose to do so.

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