20% salary hike on cards for Punjab govt staffers

The 6th Punjab Pay Commission has recommended a two-fold increase in salaries of all employees over the previous pay panel, with increase in minimum pay from Rs 6,950 to Rs 18,000 per month, with retrospective effect from January 1, 2016.

The pay panel headed by retired chief secretary Jai Singh Gill, which submitted its report to chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday, has suggested substantial hikes in salary and other major benefits, and also substantial increase in allowances for government employees. The average increment in salaries and pensions of employees is expected to be in the range of 20%, with salaries in for a 2.59 times increase after merger of dearness allowance (DA) over the 5th pay commission recommendations, according to a spokesperson of the chief minister’s office (CMO).

The commission has also recommended abolition of all types of special pay and any add-ons in the basic pay by any nomenclature, besides rationalisation of the cabinet sub-committee in 2011 when pay scales were revised upwards following protests against the recommendations of the 5th pay panel.

Finance dept to study report within two weeks

The report, which was submitted to Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday, has been sent to the finance department for detailed study and directions for placing it before the cabinet this month for further action. A senior official said the commission has tried to align basic pay struc

tures with those in the central government. “The new scales will be implemented from July 1 as already announced and payment of arrears will have to be phased out,” he said, pegging the expected overall financial implications at Rs 35,000 crore. Though finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal after presenting his budget for financial year 2021-22 had stated that he factored in Rs 9,000 crore for the pay and pension hike, there are serious questions about the ability to state to raise resources for bearing such a huge financial implication. The finance department will examine the various implications before submitting the report to the cabinet for further action. Sanjha Mulazam Morcha convener Sukhchain Singh Khehra, who has been leading a protest for the past two years against the delay in pay revision, said they would not comment without studying the report.