“The
Prime Minister has approved the composition of the 7th Central Pay Commission
as follows:
1.Shri
Justice Ashok Kumar Mathur
(Chairman)(Retired Judge of the Supreme Court and Retired Chairman,
Armed Forces Tribunal)
2.Shri
Vivek Rae
(Member (Full Time)(Secretary,
Petroleum & Natural Gas)
3.Dr.RathinRoy
Member (Part Time)(Director,
NIPFP)
4.Smt.MeenaAgarwal (Secretary)(OSD, Department
of Expenditure,Ministry of Finance)”
First Pay Commission
The
first pay commission was constituted in May 1946, and had submitted its report
in a year. and the importance is on the report. chairman was Srinivasa
Varadachariar The first pay
commission was based upon the idea of “living wages” to the employees,
this idea was taken from the Islington Commission and the commission observed
that “the test formulated by the Islington Commission is only to be
liberally interpreted to suit the conditions of the present day and to be
qualified by the condition that in no case should be a man’s pay be less than a
living wage." The commission emphasised on the idea of the living wages
and stated that the government which is going to introduce the minimum wages
legislation for the workers of the private industry should also follow the same
principle for its own employees. The commission basically recommended that the
lowest rung employee should at least get minimum wages.
Second Pay Commission
The
second pay commission was set up in August 1957, 10 years after independence
and it gave its report after two years. The recommendations of the second pay
commission had a financial impact of Rs 396 million. The chairman of the second
pay commission was Jaganath Das.The second pay commission reiterated the
principle on which the salaries have to be determined. It stated that the pay
structure and the working conditions of the government employee should be
crafted in a way so as to ensure efficient functioning of the system by
recruiting persons with a minimum qualification.
Third Pay Commission
The
third pay commission set up in April 1970 gave its report in March 1973. it
took almost 3 years to submit the report, and created proposals that cost the
government Rs. 1.44 billion. The chairman was Raghubir Dayal. The third
pay commission added three very important concepts of inclusiveness,
comprehensibility, and adequacy for pay structure to be sound in nature.The
third pay commission went beyond the idea of minimum subsistence that
was adopted by the first pay commission.the commission report say that the true
test which the government should adopt is to know weather the services are
attractive and it retains the people it needs and if these persons are
satisfied by that they are getting paid.
Fourth Pay Commission
Constituted
in June 1983, its report was given in three phases within four years and the
financial burden to the government was Rs.12.82 billion.This commission has
been set up on dated 18.3.1987, Gazette of India (Extra ordinary) The chairman
of fourth pay commission was P N Singhal.
Fifth Pay Commission
The
Fifth Pay Commission was set up in 1994 at a cost of Rs. 17,000 crore. The
chairman of fifth pay commission was Justice S. Ratnavel Pandian.
Financial
Impact of Fifth pay commission
With
the implementation of the Fifth Pay commission a huge burden was taken up by
the central government. It declared hike in salary of about 3.3 million central
government employees. Further, it also insisted on pay revision at the state
government level. The Fifth pay commission disturbed the financial situation of
both the Central and the State Governments and led to a hue and cry after its
implementation. The Central government's wage bill before the implementation of
the commission’s recommendations was 218.85 billion in 1996-1997 which also
included pension dues and by 1999 it shoot up by about 99% and the burden on
the exchequer was about to Rs 435.68 billion in 1999-2000.With regard’s to the
state government the bill went up by 74%. The state governments which paid
about Rs 515.48 billion in 1997 as salaries, had to pay Rs 898.13 billion in
1999 as salaries. This clearly indicates the burden on the state and the
central government. Many economists[who?] say that about 90% of the revenue of
the state went in as salaries[verification needed]. 13 states of India were not
in a position to pay salaries to its employees due to the hike and hence the
central government’s help was sought[citation needed].
Sixth Pay Commission
In
July 2006, the Cabinet approved setting up of the sixth pay commission. This
commission has been set up under Justice B.N.Srikrishna with a timeframe
of 18 months. The cost of hikes in salaries is anticipated to be about Rs.
20,000 crore for a total of 5.5 million government employees as per media
speculation on the 6th Pay Commission, the report of which is expected to be
handed over in late March/early April 2008. The employees had threatened to go
on a nationwide strike if the government failed to hike their salaries. Reasons
for the demand of hikes include rising inflation and rising pay in the private
sector due to the forces of Globalization. The Class 1 officers in India are
grossly underpaid with an IAS officer with 25 years of work experience earning
just Rs.55,000 as his take home pay. Pay arrears are due from January 2006 till
September 2008. Almost all the Government employees received 40% of the pay
arrears in 2008 and balance 60% arrears (as promised by Government) has also
been credited in Government employees account in 2009. The Sixth Pay Commission
mainly focused on removing ambiguity in respect of various pay scales
and mainly focused on reducing number of pay scales and bring the idea of pay
bands. It recommended for removal of Group-D cadre.
