New allowances from October says Finmin: 7th Pay Commission

New allowances from October says Finmin: 7th Pay Commission

New Delhi: The new allowances for the central government employees is likely to be implemented from October 1, a senior Finance Ministry official told.

“Definitely, the new allowances on recommendations of 7th Pay Commission will be made effective soon. However, if its implementation is delayed it will be given effect from October 1,” the official told our reporter.
The finance ministry official said the Finance Secretary committee will submit its report by September end.
The official said alongside main allowances, the Finance Secretary committee will recommend various reforms in allowances hence it will take some time to implement those after scrutinising.

The Union Cabinet cleared the recommendations of 7th Pay Commission in respect of the hike in basic pay and pension on June 29 but decision on its suggestions relating to allowances has been referred to a Committee headed by Finance Secretary.

Accordingly, notification and resolution for the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations in respect of the hike in basic pay were issued on July 25.

The pay fixation and arrears related Office Memorandum No.1-5/2016-IC and Corrigendum dated July 29 and dated August 1 respectively were issued for paying arrears in one go in August salary.

According to Union Cabinet decision, a Committee headed by Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa and Secretaries of Home Affairs, Defence, Health and Family Welfare among others as its members was constituted on July 22 for examination of the recommendations of 7th Pay Commission on allowances other than dearness allowance.

The pay commission headed by Justice A K Mathur had recommended abolition of 51 allowances and subsuming 37 others after examining 196 allowances.

The scrapping of the allowances was opposed by the central government employees’ Unions and so it has been referred to a Committee of Secretaries.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in Rajya Sabha in this month, “These measures are radical in nature, even the employees’ unions have given their suggestions in the matter and therefore the committee has been formed to look into allowances. Whatever the committee decides, it will go to the Cabinet.”

The first meeting of the Finance Secretary Committee on allowances already took place on August 4.
The once in a decade pay hike has seen burden on exchequer rise from Rs 17,000 crore in the 5th Pay Commission to Rs 40,000 crore in the 6th and Rs 1,02,100 crore in the 7th Pay Commission, Jaitley earlier said.

“The Union government needs funds. The Pay Commission has put a burden of Rs 1.03 lakh crore,” Jaitley said in the Parliament in this month.

The hike in the salary component as recommended by the 7th Pay Commission was accepted with retrospective effect from January 1, 2016. The arrears will be paid to the Central government employees and pensioners on August 31, Jaitley added.

It is noted that no arrears for allowances will be paid, as per usual practice, the allowances would be paid from the date of implementation.

The recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission cover 48 lakh Central government employees and 52 lakh pensioners.

TST

Government may pay Rs 34,600 cr salary hike arrears in August salary – India Ratings and Research

Government may pay Rs 34,600 cr salary hike arrears in August salary – India Ratings and Research

Government may pay Rs 34,600 cr salary hike arrears in August salary – The government had last month announced that it will pay its employees arrears arising out of implementation of the 7th Pay Commission award at one go in August salary.

Government may disburse Rs 34,600 crore to its employees as salary hike in August as arrears because of implementation of the 7th pay panel recommendations, India Ratings and Research said on Wednesday.
The government had last month announced that it will pay its employees arrears arising out of implementation of the 7th Pay Commission award at one go in August salary.

“The combined outgo for the Centre on account of arrears for January to July and payments for August will total Rs 34,600 crore,” Ind-Ra said in a statement.

The outgo due to the hike in salary and pension is unlikely to cause significant systemic liquidity disruption, it said.

According to Ind-Ra, the banking system liquidity will experience transient frictional tightness ahead of the payment of arrears.

“The government is likely to go slow on spending as it gears up to meet lumpy payments. Temporal adjustments notwithstanding, the overall liquidity conditions will be cushioned as RBI will transfer its profit to the government of India,” it said.

In the current fiscal, the Reserve Bank will transfer its surplus profit of Rs 65,876 crore.

Out of the Rs 1.02 lakh crore gross impact of the 7th Pay Commission on the exchequer, the Budget has made a provision to the extent of Rs 93,325 crore.

“Any shortfall arising out of the salary hike payment is likely to be marginal and will not significantly affect the country’s fiscal position,” the rating agency said.

There shall be two dates for grant of increment – January 1 and July 1 every year – instead of the existing July 1 only.

Source: ET

Filling up of supervisory posts of Accounts Department-reg

NFIR
National Federation of Indian Railwaymen
3, CHELMSFORD ROAD, NEW DELHI – 110055
Affiliated to :
Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC)
International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF)

No. II/70/Part II

Dated: 18 /08/2016

The Secretary (E),
Railway Board,
New Delhi

Dear Sir,

Sub: Filling up of supervisory posts of Accounts Department-reg.
Ref: Railway Board’s letter No. 2015/AC-II120/App-3 dated 01/08/2016, addressed to General Secretary NFIR.

On perusal of the proposal sent vide Railway Board’s letter No.2015/AC-II/20/App-3 dated 01/08/2016,
the NFIR finds that the said proposal may not in fact give desired results for ensuring efficiency and achieving perfection in the working system. In this connection, NFIR conveys as follows:-

(i) There is need to ensure annual recruitment of JAAs against the DR quota percentage uninterruptedly, thereby, such recruitees can be adequately trained, retrained for meeting the system’s requirements .

(ii) It needs to be admitted by the Railway Board that wrong policy of non-filling of vacancies particularly against DR quota for decades together has resulted difficult situation. Federation wants that such mistakes not be repeated.

(iii) The extant policy of holding centralized examination of Appendix-III IREM needs to be reviewed and decentralized to facilitate Zonal Railways to conduct these examinations regularly fo’r the purpose of filling the vacancies as well for meeting the future requirement. If this policy revision is approved and implemented, the fear that 34% vacancies by 2019-2020 will get dispelled.

(iv) The Railway Board may consider introducing the system of filling vacancies of SSO(A) etc., through different types of examinations against 70% and 30% quota vacancies as is being presently done in the case of selections to Group ‘B’ (Gazetted).

• Those Accounts Assistants with GP 4200/- (PB-2) put in minimum two years service may be allowed to appear in the selection against 30% quota vacancies and panel drawn based on merit. In the case of 70% quota vacancies, those Accounts Assistants rendered 5 years service, may be made eligible to appear and such number be equal to three times the vacancies in the order of seniority and panel be drawn on the basis of their seniority.
• The examinations against 70% & 30% quota vacancies may be conducted annually and while calling for the applications against these quotas, option from the staff may be obtained whether they prefer SSO (A) or Sf. TIA or Sr. ISA, thereby they can be deployed on promotion in case of their empanellement.
• 5% marks weightage may be considered to be added to the qualifying marks to those Accounts Assistants who have completed three years service or more.
• The syllabus for 70% and as well 30% quota vacancies may be formulated by Railway Board which should be followed by Zonal Railways.
• The questions may be of “objective” type upto 50% out of total number of questions and the remaining may be “subjective”.

(v) The Zonal Railways may be advised to conduct the examinations” online “, depending upon the availability of infrastructure and facilities. Such system would contribute for quick evaluation and declaration of results without any loss of time to facilitate filling the vacancies within the reasonable time.
(vi) It also needs to be seriously considered for providing the following pay structure in the Accounts Department.

(a) JAA – GP 4200/-
(b) AA- GP 4800/-
(c) SSO (A)/Sr. TIA/Sr. ISA – GP 5400/-

NFIR expects the Railway Board to consider the above and respond early. During discussions as and when fixed, the Federation will highlight more details.

Yours faithfully,

sd/-
(Dr. M. Raghavaiah)
General Secretary

Source : NFIR

Clarification regarding the Income Declaration Scheme 2016

Clarification regarding the Income Declaration Scheme 2016

Fifth Set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) was issued yesterday clarifying certain issues relating to Income Declaration Scheme,2016 (the Scheme). Clarification has been sought as to whether the answer number 4 of the said FAQ shall apply to all assets declared under the Scheme or it is limited to only immovable property. As explained in the said answer, the clarification was issued considering the fact that investment in an immovable property may be funded partially from undisclosed and partially from disclosed sources. In such cases, if the property is sold in near future, gains from part of the property may be long term and the balance may be short term. This shall cause undue hardship to the declarant. Therefore, the clarification issued relates only for determination of holding period of immovable property.

In view of the above, it is again clarified that answer number 4 of the said FAQ shall only be applicable for determining holding period of an immovable property for which the date of acquisition is evidenced by a deed registered with any authority of the State Government. However, for assets other than immovable property declared under the Scheme, the holding period shall start from 01.06.2016 for purpose of computation of capital gains.

Source : PIB

10 central trade unions stick to plan for 1-day nation-wide strike on September 2

NEW Delhi: As many as 10 central trade unions have decided to go ahead with their call for a 1-day pan-India strike on September 2, with no positive response from the government on their 12-point charter of demand.

“The 10 central trade unions have decided to go on strike on September 2, 2016, in a meeting of the coordination committee held yesterday,” All India Trade Union Congress Secretary D L Sachdev said.
“The mandatory 2-week notice in the case of essential services like transport and power has already been served by the local units of our unions earlier this week. We are expecting over 10 crore people to participate in the strike.”

However, RSS-affiliate Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh is not part of this joint declaration as the next meeting with ministerial panel on labour issues headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on August 22 is awaited.
The exclusive meeting between Jaitley-led ministerial panel and BMS representatives to discuss its demand remained “inconclusive” earlier this week on August 16. The other trade unions were not called for the meeting.

It was the first meeting of the ministerial panel with a central trade union over the 12-point charter of demands in almost a year. It had met trade unions on August 26-27, 2015.

PTI

Not Revising HRA as per 7th CPC Recommendation is a big disappointment…!

Not Revising HRA as per 7th CPC Recommendation is a big disappointment…!

7th Pay Commission submitted its Recommendation in November 2016. House Rent Allowance is one of the very important recommendation expected by CG Employees among the most expected recommendations.

A Govt servant is spending one third of his salary for paying House Rent. Considering these expenses of CG Employees those who are living in big cities, Sixth CPC has recommended 10, 20 and 30% of the Basic pay as HRA. Accordingly, HRA has been paid for the past Eight Years and the Federation Demanded to increase this rates in 7th Pay Commission.

But the Commission in its recommendation reduced these rates to 8,16 and 24%. Though it has been justified with various reasons by 7th CPC, it disappointed the CG employees. Since CG Employees felt that only these reduced rates will be paid for next ten years, their demand to restore the old rates started gaining big support. As a result of this, all the Staff associations and Federations pressurized the Government to increase the rate of HRA and it was included in charter of 7th CPC demands.

Already the Government had wasted six months in the name of Empowered Committee to examine the 7th CPC Recommendations. Until now the report of this committee is not published.

The Cabinet gave its approval for the implementation of 7th CPC recommendations on 29th June 2016. It has been stated in that report that, a committee headed by Secretary, Finance will be Constituted to examine the Allowances and committee is given four-month time to submit its report. Till then the HRA will be paid as per Sixth CPC rates.

Meanwhile, Group of Ministers invited NJCA for a meeting to with draw the Indefinite Strike proposed to commence from 11th July, In that meeting, Increasing the percentage of HRA also discussed. The Government agreed to form a committee to examine the Allowances. It has been described as Government indirectly agreed to increase the HRA.

Implementation of 7th CPC recommendation was ensured by Gazette Notification issued on 25th July 2016. But there was no Change in the recommendation of HRA.

Till now the Central Government employees are wondering that why the Committee has been given four Months’ Time to examine the HRA. As well as the decision to continue the HRA in Sixth CPC is considered as big disappointment.

HRA plays a Major Role in pay hike. So the CG Staff feel that HRA would have been paid in Revised rates from this month onwards. Thereafter paying arrears for the Increased amount in HRA will become inevitable. Because there is no assurance that Revised rates of HRA will be given retrospective effect.

7th Pay Commission: Salary arrears to Central govt employees estimated at Rs. 34,600 crore

7th Pay Commission: Salary arrears to Central govt employees estimated at Rs. 34,600 crore

The outgo on account of salary arrears and payments for August for Central government employees has been pegged at Rs. 34,600 crore by ratings agency India Ratings.

The 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) recommendations implemented by the Central government will entail a payment of Rs. 34,600 crore towards salary arrears for seven months and August wages to employees, according to a ratings agency.

The hike in the salary component as recommended by the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) was accepted with retrospective effect from January 1, 2016.

“The combined outgo for the center on account of arrears for January to July and payments for August will total to Rs. 346 bn (Rs. 34,600 crore),” India Ratings and Research Pvt Ltd. (Ind-Ra) said in a statement on Wednesday.

On the flip side, this is likely to result in a “go slow” approach by the Narendra Modi government, according to the agency.

“The government is likely to go slow on spending as it gears up to meet lumpy payments (other than regular payments),” Ind-Ra said in its statement.

However, the impact won’t be much on the government’s finances. “The outgo due to a hike in salaries and pensions, in line with the Seventh Central Pay Commission’s (7CPC) recommendations, is unlikely to cause significant systemic liquidity disruptions,” the ratings agency said.

The salary hike announced by the Modi government in accordance with the recommendations of the 7th CPC covers about 1 crore employees and pensioners. There are about 53 lakh pensioners and 47 lakh Central government employees, of which 14 lakh employees and 18 lakh pensioners are from the defence forces.

A decision on increasing allowances will be taken approximately by November, according to an official statement by the government in June.

“Given the significant changes in the existing provisions for Allowances which may have wide ranging implications, the Cabinet decided to constitute a Committee headed by Finance Secretary for further examination of the recommendations of 7th CPC on Allowances. The Committee will complete its work in a time bound manner and submit its reports within a period of 4 months. Till a final decision, all existing Allowances will continue to be paid at the existing rates,” the June 29 statement said.

The pay commission had recommended abolition of 51 allowances and subsuming 37 others after examining 196 allowances.

Source : ibtimes

OROP panel hearing ex-servicemen issues: Government tells High Court

OROP panel hearing ex-servicemen issues: Govt tells High Court

New Delhi: The Centre today told the Delhi High Court that it has extended by six months the term of the one-member judicial commission on OROP which has commenced public hearings on grievances of ex-servicemen from yesterday.

The submission was made by the government before a bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Ashutosh Kumar which was hearing a PIL for public hearing of ex-servicemen’s grievances as well as extension of the term of the commission, headed by Justice (retired) L Narasimha Reddy.

Central government standing counsel Anurag Ahluwalia told the court that the first public hearing was held at Chandigarh yesterday and would be held at various other places across the country, ending on September 21.

He said the hearing in Delhi would be held on August 19, after which the petitioner’s lawyer, Satya Ranjan Swain, said details of the time and venue of the hearing have not been disclosed.

Pursuant to the submission by the petitioner’s lawyer, the court directed the government to provide the time and venue details of the public hearing in Delhi to the petitioner today itself and listed the matter for hearing on August 24.

After the hearing and order by the court, Swain said he received an email from the government stating that the public hearing in Delhi would be held on August 19 at 11 AM at Vasundhra Vatika, Raj Rif Centre, Delhi Cantonment here.

The petitioner, S P Singh, who is an ex-serviceman, has sought directions to the Ministry of Defence and the commission “to give an effective public hearing to those affected or aggrieved by implementation of One Rank One Pension (OROP)”.

According to the petition, as per a Ministry letter dated April 13, “Defence Forces pensioners/family pensioners, Defence Pensioners’ Associations can submit their suggestions/ views on the revised pension as notified, to the MoD, through post or by email within 15 days i.e. by April 29, 2016″.

The petitioner has contended that this information was not published in the newspapers and, therefore, people were not informed and added that even the time limit given to forward the representations was “very short”.

The Centre today told the court that the date for forwarding suggestions and representations was later extended to May 15.

It also told the court that the commission which was set up in December last year and had to give its report by June this year, can now do so by December.

PTI

Enhancement of Pension for Freedom Fighters under the Swatantrata Sainik Samman Pension Scheme

Enhancement of Pension for Freedom Fighters under the Swatantrata Sainik Samman Pension Scheme

The existing pension scheme for Central freedom fighter pensioners and their eligible dependents has been restructured as per the table below:

Sl. No.	Category of freedom fighters	Present amount of pension (per month)	Enhanced amount of pension(per month)
1.	Ex-Andaman Political Prisoners/ spouses	Rs.24,775/-	Rs.30,000/-
2.	Freedom fighters who suffered outside British India/spouses	Rs.23,085/-	Rs.28,000/-
3.	Other Freedom Fighters/ spouses including INA	Rs.21,395/-	Rs.26,000/-
4.	Dependent parents/ eligible daughters (maximum 3 daughters at any point of time)Rs.3,380/- (dependent parents)	Rs.5,070/- (daughters)	50% of the sum that would have been admissible to the Freedom Fighter i.e. in the range of Rs.13,000/- to Rs. 15,000/-

The revised scale shall take effect from 15.08.2016.

The existing Dearness Relief system based on All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial workers, which was hitherto applied to freedom fighter pensioners on annual basis, is being discontinued and replaced by the Dearness Allowance system applicable to Central Government employees twice a year.

All freedom fighters and spouses and dependent parents/eligible daughter pensioners of deceased freedom fighters drawing pension under the Swatantrata Sainik Samman Pension Scheme, 1980 would be benefitted by the decision. So far, total 1,71,605 freedom fighters and their eligible dependents have been sanctioned pension under the scheme. At present 37,981 freedom fighters and their eligible dependent pensioners are covered under the scheme. Of these, 11,690 are freedom fighters themselves, 24,792 are spouses(widows/widowers) and 1,499 are daughter pensioners.

In 1969, Government of India introduced the ‘Ex-Andaman Political Prisoners Pension Scheme’ to honour the freedom fighters who had been incarcerated in the Cellular Jail at Port Blair. In 1972, to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of our Independence, a regular scheme for grant of freedom fighters’ pension was introduced. Thereafter, with effect from 01.08.1980, a liberalized scheme, namely the ‘Swatantrata Sainik Samman Pension Scheme’ is being implemented. Besides the freedom fighters, spouses (widows/widowers), unmarried and unemployed daughters (upto maximum three at any point of time) and parents of deceased freedom fighters are eligible for pension under the scheme.

PIB

Central Govt Employees DA to be hiked by 2% from July under 7th Pay Commission recommendations

Central Government  Employees DA to be hiked by 2% from July under 7th Pay Commission recommendations

New Delhi: The government is to approve hiking dearness allowance (DA) to 2 per cent under 7th Pay Commission recommendations, which was accepted by the cabinet with retrospective effect from January 1, 2016.

The 7th Pay Commission recommended the merging of 125 percent dearness allowance into the basic pay.

The central government employees also now get 125 per cent dearness allowance from January, 2016 in pre-revised scales.

The 7th Pay commission recommended new pay matrix, based on the Consumer Price Index 261.42, its effective date in January this year, while the 6th Pay commission had recommended the basic pay based on the Consumer Price Index 115.76 in January 2006.

As per practice, the government uses Consumer Price Index- Industrial Workers ( CPI-IW) data of the past 12 months to arrive at a quantum for the purpose of any DA hike.

Thus, the CPI-IW from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016 would be used to take a final call on the matter.
The CPI (IW) of the months July, August, September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May and June were 263, 264, 266, 269, 270, 269, 269, 267, 268, 271, 275 and 277 respectively.

The average of the consumer price index -industrial workers (CPI-IW) from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016 works out to be 2.90 per cent. Thus the Central government will hike dearness allowance for it employees by 2 per cent as government will not round off the figures for the purpose of calculating dearness allowance.
The proposed hike is in accordance with the accepted formula based on the recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission as 7th Pay Commission recommended to go for ditto in this regard.

Accordingly, new Dearness Allowance Calculation formula is given below:-

(12 Monthly Average) – 261.42
———————————X 100 = D A Percentage (ignore decimals)
261.42

TST

Central Secretariat employees seek pay parity

Central Secretariat employees seek pay parity

A delegation of the Central Secretariat Stenographers' Service (CSSS) Association, called on the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh here today and sought his intervention for parity in pay fixation and related issues.

The delegation led by Shri Raj Kishore Singh submitted a memorandum listing details of their long pending issues and suggesting options to resolve the same. According to the memorandum, while applying Rule 8 of CCS (RP) Rules 2008, the pay of direct recruits and new entrants is fixed at higher stage, when compared to the existing employees who were promoted in the same grade. This leads to discrimination in the fixation of pay of Personal Assistants of one category vis-à-vis the other category.

The memorandum also stated that the issue has been lingering on in the National Anomaly Committee for the last four years, but it has not been addressed. It pleaded that the mechanism of grant of “stepping up” to certain employees should be provided only in exceptional cases and not resorted to as a routine matter to sort out discrepancies which may affect a large number of employees.

Members of the delegation suggested that their issue can be addressed by incorporating a new provision in the Rules wherein if a promotee’s pay is getting fixed at a stage lower than that of a direct recruit, then the pay of the promotee should be fixed at the same stage as that of a direct recruit / new entrant. The other option suggested by them was to amend the CCS (RP) Rules so as to appropriately fix the pay in the Pay Band for a particular post carrying a specific Grade Pay.

Dr Jitendra Singh gave a sympathetic hearing to the members of delegation and assured them that DoPT will try to sort out their issue to the maximum extent possible.

PIB