7th Pay Commission: No good news for these Army officers, govt rejects military service pay hike

While there is no clarity still over central government employees minimum pay and fitment factor hike, the government has finally broken its silence for personnel including Junior Commissioned Officers of the Army, by rejecting their long-standing demand for Military Service Pay (MSP) hike. 

It is being known that, official sources tol PTI, the Army headquarters is “very anguished” over the decision by the Finance Ministry, and will seek its immediate review.

As per the reports, somewhat 1.12 lakh military personnel including 87,646 JCOs and 25,434 personnel of equivalent rank from the Navy and the Indian Air Force are seen to be impacted by this decision of government. 

These army officers demand reportedly, the monthly MSP hike from Rs 5,500 to Rs 10,000. 

However, it was revealed that, if the government accepted the demand, then their total annual financial outgo would have been Rs 610 crore.

When the recommendations of 7th Pay Commission were approved, under which the MSP per month had been fixed at Rs 5,200 for JCOs and jawans while putting it at Rs 15,500 for officers between Lieutenant-rank and Brigadier-rank.

While these army officers are not alone in showing disappointment in 7CPC recommendations, as recently even state-owned BSNL and MTNL employees have reflected similar opinions, in fact they have also threaten to held a strike if demands over pension and wages are not met. 

Meanwhile, as many as 50 lakh central government employees have been waiting for some good news on their demands for a hike in their minimum pay scale and fitment factor. These employees are demanding a fitment factor of 3.68 times with minimum pay scale of Rs 26,000. This is after the Union Cabinet revised their minimum pay to Rs 18,000 from previous Rs 7,000 per month, along with fitment factor of 2.57 times in June 2016 leading to a major hike in all central government employees salaries.