7th pay commission: Government employees retirement age now on the table?

7th pay commission: There is much speculation over whether the Central government can extend benefit of the 7th pay commission to its employees by increasing the retirement age by two years, something that the Madhya Pradesh government recently did. The BJP led government in the state raised the retirement age of its government employees from 60 to 62 years. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan took this step through the ordinance route, and notified The Madhya Pradesh Shaskiya Sevak (Adhivarshiki-Ayu) Sanshodhan Adhyadesh. The decision would benefit thousands of employees ahead of the assembly polls the state will be going through later this year.
 
According to reports, some authorities at the Central government level are quite impressed with this step and are reportedly mulling whether the same step can be taken at the Centre, which is, raise retirement age of the Central government employees. 
 
Meanwhile, the government is reportedly still discussing the fitment factor hike. Employees, especially the lower-rung ones, may finally expect some good news, as earlier reports suggested that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was reportedly willing to increase the minimum pay and fitment factor for these staff, but the issue never managed to reach the finalisation point.
 
Last month, the government had denied reports of any pay hike beyond the recommendations of the seventh pay commission, which had recommended an increase of 14.27 per cent in basic pay for the central government employees, raising minimum pay from Rs 7,000 to Rs 18,000.

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The government had approved the pay panel recommendations but employees were not happy as they sought a hike in minimum pay from Rs 18,000 to Rs 26,000 and fitment factor 3.68 times from 2.57 times.
It may be noted that the government has recently notified doubling the limit of tax-free gratuity for private sector employees to Rs 20 lakh from Rs 10 lakh. The notification has come in the wake of amendment in the Payment of Gratuity Act. The ceiling of tax-free gratuity for central government employees had already been revised to Rs 20 lakh with the implementation the 7th Pay Commission.