Changes in the Payment of Bonus Act will benefit thousands of Central Government Employees

Changes in the Payment of Bonus Act will benefit thousands of CG employees

The Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Bill, 2015 notified:Increase in the Eligibility Limit under clause (13) of Section 2 and Calculation Ceiling under Section 12 of the Payment of Bonus Act, 2015

The Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Bill, 2015 was passed by the Parliament in the just concluded Winter Session of the Parliament. The Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Act, 2015 has been published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary on 1st January, 2016 as Act No. 6 of 2016. The provisions of the Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Act, 2015 shall be deemed to have come into force on the 1st day of April, 2014.

The Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Act, 2015 envisages enhancement of eligibility limit under section 2(13) from Rs.10,000/- per month to Rs.21,000/- per month and Calculation Ceiling under section 12 from Rs. 3500 to Rs.7000 or the minimum wage for the scheduled employment, as fixed by the appropriate Government, whichever is higher. The Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Act, 2015 also mandates previous publication of draft subordinate legislations, framed under the enabling provisions under the said Act, in the Official Gazette for inviting objections and suggestions before their final notification.

The Government has been receiving representations from trade unions for removal of all ceilings under the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965. It is also one of the demands made by them during the country-wide General Strike held in February, 2013 and September, 2015. As the last revision in these two ceilings were made in the year 2007 and was made effective from the 1st April, 2006, it was decided by the Government to make appropriate amendments to the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965.

These changes in the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 will benefit thousands of work force.

PIB

Latest official details of Defence Pensioners – PCDA released

Latest official details of Defence Pensioners – PCDA released

Profile of Defence Pensioners as on April 2015

As on 01.04.2015 the Defence Accounts Department is servicing 24.61 lakhs pensioners, spread across the country.

The category wise details of pensioners is as under:

Sl.No.	Category	Number of Pensioners
1.	Commissioned Officers	58,754
2.	P.B.O.R.	18,40,809
3.	Defence Civilians	5,62,088
Total		24,61,651

The details of pensioners drawing pension from various PDAs is summarized as under:

Sl.No.	Name of PDA	Number of Pensioners	Percentage
1.	Public/ Private Sector Banks	18,42,092	74.83
2.	DPDOs	4,60,336	18.70
3.	Distt. Treasuries	60,752	2.47
4.	IE Nepal	92,876	3.77
5.	Post Office	4,496	0.18
6.	PAOs	1,099	0.05
	Total	24,61,651	100

On an average 45,000 Defence Forces personnel and Defence civilians retire every year and become part of pensioners’ strength. While working out the data‐base of pensioners as on a given date, average wastages out of the pensioners’ data base are worked out to arrive at the number of Defence pensioners on a particular date.

The Defence pensioners are spread over the length and breadth of the country. The major pockets having concentration of Defence pensioners are states of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala among others.

The Zone/State wise details of pensioners is enclosed in the accompanying Annexure – ‘A’.

Further, around 4.60 lakhs pensioners drawing pension from 63 Defence Pension Disbursement offices, which are also mapped in the accompanying Annexure – ‘B’.

Authority: www.cgda.nic.in

No separate DA will be announced, 7th CPC Report to review salaries of central government employees

The recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission award to review salaries of central government employees, will be implemented in April and no separate DA will be announced, Finance Ministry sources said.

“The cabinet will give its nod to implement the 7th Pay Commission award in April after some modification and it will be effective from January 1, 2016,” the sources added.

After receiving the 7th Pay Commission report on November 19, the government had formed the implementation cell of the pay commission headed by ar Joint Secretary in Finance Ministry on November 20 last year.

With an eye on implementation of Pay Commission award, the government will not hike the dearness allowance (DA) to 1119% from existing 125%. The DA hike will be merged with the new pay as the Pay Commission made report, assuming that the rate of Dearness Allowance would be 125 percent at the time of implementation of the pay commission recommendation, i.e. on January 1.

Hence, the government has bound to implement the 7th Pay Commission award in April, they confirmed.

The notification to put into effect the Seventh pay commission recommendation will be issued in April before the announcement of West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu states assemblies’ election in May 2016, which will benefit 50 lakh central government employees and 52 lakh pensioners including dependents, sources of Finance Ministry said Wednesday.

“The BJP led central government decided execution time of the pay commission’s award in April, which will also be possible pre-election “special packages” for West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu to win sufficient seats of states Assemblies polls, sources told our reporters.

The 7th Pay Commission was set up by the UPA government in February 2014, The Commission headed by Justice A K Mathur submitted its 900-page final report to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on February 19, recommending 23.55 per cent hike in salaries and allowances of Central government employees and pensioners.

The panel recommended a 14.27 per cent increase in basic pay, the lowest in 70 years. The previous 6th Pay Commission had recommended a 20 per cent hike, which the government doubled while implementing it in 2008.

The 7th pay commission recommended fixing the highest basic salary at Rs 250,000 and the lowest at Rs 18,000and its increased the pay gap between the minimum and maximum from existing 1:12 to 1: 13.8

The government constitutes the Pay Commission almost every 10 years to revise the pay scale of its employees and pensioners, often these are adopted by states after some modifications. However, the 7th Pay Commission suggested to discontinue the practice of appointing pay commissions in future.