India

Salary hike for central government employees on the cards: Report

NEW DELHI — The Modi government is thinking of increasing the salaries of lakhs of central government employees starting this month, according to a Zee Business report.

After hiking the Dearness Allowance by 28 percent, the Finance Ministry stated that the employee will get a total DA of 31 percent, indicating a rise of 3 percent. Earlier, the central government had raised the DA from 17 percent to 28 percent.

Many central government employees have, for long, been demanding a raise in minimum pay from Rs 18,000 to Rs 26,000, along with the fitment factor to be raised from 2.57 times to 3.68 times, which means the hike will be about Rs 8,000. Reportedly, approval from the Union cabinet is expected before the budget, stated various media reports.

In June 2017, the cabinet had approved almost 34 modifications recommended by the 7th Pay Commission, which meant that the new scales of pay went up from Rs 7,000 per month to Rs 18,000. At the highest level of Secretary, the pay scale went up from Rs 90,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh, while for Class 1 officers, the starting salary was at Rs 56,000.