New Delhi, November 10: On Tuesday night Prime Minister took the nation by surprise and announced a crackdown on Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes with effect from same midnight, making these notes invalid across India. The recent development has no doubt caused inconvenience to common people. But the most effected ones are government employees who have been eagerly waiting for the 7th Pay Commission award which may get delayed following Narendra Modi’s surgical strike on black money to curb rising black money, fake currency, and corruption. There are reports that higher allowances under the 7th Pay Commission which were to be implemented soon will be delayed when the situation returns to normalcy.
“The process of higher allowances may be delayed as now the government is busy for making situation normal after a surgical strike on black money,” a top official of Finance Ministry was quoted by a news portal on condition of anonymity. The official further added that “after the surgical strike on black money issues related to many other financial activities has been increased and the Narendra Modi government has to kept the process of higher allowances in the pipeline and are waiting for things to get normalised. However, the government is keen to implement the higher allowances speedily in a time-bound manner.”
The top official further added that “the Narendra Modi government is in fear of any eventual incident for a surgical strike on black money in the country and in view of the current scenario, the government has decided to delay the announce of higher allowances”.

The Central Government employees unions are pressing hard on the government to announce the higher allowance and they had recently called for a Parliament march on December 12. Earlier there were reports that the ‘Committee on Allowances’ has already given a final touch to its report on higher allowances. The committee met up with the deadline of four months given to it by the cabinet to submit its reports, the top official confirmed.
There are reports that the quantum of allowances may not vary from those proposed by the 7th Pay Commission as the committee looking into the issue sticks with the 7th Pay Commission’s recommendations on allowances proposed higher allowances with retrospective effect from August 2016 but the central government employees unions demanded for implementation of the allowances with effect from January 2016.
Recently Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa said that his team is ready to submit its report whenever Finance Minister Arun Jaitley calls up. The committee on allowances was set up July this year in the direction of the cabinet.