7th Pay Commission Latest News: From 4% DA hike to 18-month arrears, central employees to get these 4 benefits in August

7th Pay Commission Latest news: The upcoming August month could bring cheers for central government employees as they are likely to benefit from these four gifts from the Central government. Here is the list of announcement that may come next month. Zee Business’ Shubham Shukla reports.

7th Pay Commission DA Hike: The central government employees could get good news on this front. The employees may get a 4 per cent hike in the Dearness Allowance (DA). This will take the total DA to 38 per cent from the current 34 per cent. The hike is almost a done deal. The DA hike will be based on the numbers announced by All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (AICPI-IW) for May. However, the June 2022 numbers are yet to be declared. The numbers will be declared on 31 July 2022. After this, there will be more clarity on the hike. It is being said that the call in this can be taken during the cabinet meeting scheduled in the first week of August.

18 Months DA Arrear new update: Windfall gains for employees

There are also chances that the government could take a call on the 18-month arrear that has been stuck.  There is a lot of buzz around the arrear issue. The government froze DA arrear for the period between January 2020 and June 2021. After the announcement of freeze on Dearness Allowance arrear by the government because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the union of central government employees has been demanding the release of the arrear.    

The pensioners have in-fact sent a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to release their Dearness Relief (DR) as the stuck amount is significant. The union is of the view that the government must do a negotiated settlement. It is likely that something on this could be announced during the meeting.

7th Pay Commission: likely discussion on demand for fitment factor

The state and central government employees have been demanding that their Fitment factor Hike must be increased from the current 2.57 times to 3.68 times. Zee Business, through its sources has learnt that the government could consider having a discussion on this. The discussion on this with the Cabinet Secretary could be in the end of August. If this happens, the central government employees could gain significantly. If the fitment factor is increased then there will be an increase of Rs 8000.

Discussion on 8th Pay Commission

The salary of Central government employees is as per the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission which are now in place. The Central government employees have been saying that they are drawing salaries less than the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission. They are benefiting from the salary components, however, they are getting lesser amount.

Currently the lowest basic salary is Rs 18000. Fitment factor has a big role to play in this. The state and central government employees have been demanding that their Fitment factor Hike must be increased from the current 2.57 times to 3.68 times.  If this increase happens, the minimum basic salary will go up from Rs 18000 to Rs 26,000. There is a lot of buzz around the 8th Pay commission now.