Finance Secretary Interview

Date : 12.10.2016

A committee is currently examining the 7th CPC recommendations on allowances and it will submit its report soon: Finance Secretary

Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa

The committee on allowances, which is looking into allowances, which was recommended by 7th Pay Commission, will soon submit its report, Union finance secretary Ashok Lavasa said during an interview.

“A committee headed by me is currently examining the Pay Commission’s recommendations on allowances and it will submit its report soon,” Lavasa said in the exclusive interview with The Economic Times.

The government constituted the committee in June, comprising finance secretary as Chairman and secretaries of Home Affairs, Defence, Health and Family Welfare, Personnel and Training, Posts and Chairman, Railway Board as Members to examine the 7th Pay Commission recommendations on allowances, other than dearness allowance.

• The committee has been asked to submit its report within four months but it’s ready to submit its report even two months in advance.
• Once the report is submitted, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will take a call on hike in allowances, the sources in finance ministry said.
• Last year, the pay commission headed by Justice A K Mathur had recommended abolition of 51 allowances and subsuming 37 others after examining 196 allowances.

The representatives of the employees unions had earlier conveyed to the government that they did not want it to approve the 7th Pay Commission recommendations on allowances without examining them further. So, the Union Cabinet directed to set up committee on allowances.

The matters relating to pay and pension as decided by the government have been implemented with effect from January 1 this year. The government has also paid its employees arrears of basic pay arising from implementation of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations in one go in August salaries without higher allowances.

• “Till a final decision of allowances, all existing Allowances will continue to be paid at the existing rate,” an earlier official statement issued by the finance ministry said.
• The sources said that the quantum of allowances may not vary from those proposed by the 7th Pay Commission.
• “The committee on allowances is likely to stick with the 7th Pay Commission’s recommendations on allowances,” the sources added.

Last year, the finance ministry set up an ‘Implementation Cell’ to give effect to the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission which are eventually accepted by the government.

“So far as the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission report is concerned, an implementation cell was created under this ministry about a year ago and it is still continuing,” the finance secretary also said in the interview.

The recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission are applicable to 48 lakh central government employees and 52 lakh pensioners.