Following is the excerpt of a media report published in The
Economic Times on 29th March 2015. "Welcome to the behind-the-scenes
manoeuvring before the Big Sarkari Pay Hike. With a new pay scale for 36 lakh
Central government employees, and also pensioners, likely to come into effect
from January 1, 2016, the officers and non-gazetted staff of various services
have been lobbying hard to get a good deal from the 7th CPC. Unlike in the
private sector, the pay hike ingovernment is a once-in-10-years-affair, making
every CPC, right from the first that submitted its report in 1947, a hugely
powerful agency. No doubt, government employees have to undergo an annual
appraisal process called Annual Performance Appraisal Report (APAR), but that
exercise is important only for promotion, and not for any pay hike. Government
employees do get a regular hike in dearness allowance, a measure meant for
offsetting inflationary pressure on their earnings, but at the end of the day
it is the CPC that fixes the bureaucrats' pay for 10 long years.
That's precisely why officers and staff of of every service
can't afford to ignore the CPC. Constituted in February 2014 under the
chairmanship of retired Supreme Court judge Ashok Kumar Mathur, the 7th CPC has
an economist and two bureaucrats as its members. Most of the employees'
associations have already had at least one round of talks with the Commission.
And some are waiting for Round II."
"To be sure, a formula towards pay parity has been the
hallmark of the last few pay commissions. A government entry-level peon now
gets a monthly pay of Rs 14,000, if dearness allowance is factored in.
Similarly, a mid-level government driver's monthly salary, including
allowances, is Rs 30,000, at least two times that of his counterpart in a
private sector company. And that's why the salary gap between the lowest and
highest paid government servant has drastically decreased over the last three
decades."
"At present, only three major ministries — railways,
external affairs and post — are not headed by IAS but run by their own cadres.
Now, IPS wants a new department of internal security headed by a cop and IRS
wants a separate direct tax department headed by a taxman.
Will the 7th CPC venture into such nuances? Or will it, like
the past few pay commissions have, adopt a simple formula of Multiplier 3 under
which the basic salary is hiked by three times or more depending on the
economic health of the nation. If that is the case, it won't be too hazardous
to make a prediction: A secretary to government of India will get a basic
monthly salary (excluding DA) of Rs 2.4 lakh (current basic salary multiplied
by three) and the cabinet secretary Rs 2.7 lakh from January 1, 2016. And, yes,
perks, DA and other allowances will be extra."
