In a major bonanza for government employees, the 6th Pay Commission of the Punjab Government has recommended an over 2-fold increase in salaries of all employees, with increase in minimum pay from Rs 6950 to Rs 18000 per month, with retrospective effect from January 1, 2016.
The Commission has suggested major hikes in salary and other major benefits, and also substantial increase in allowances for government employees. The average increment in salaries and pensions of employees is expected in the range of 20 per cent, with salaries in for a 2.59 times increase over the 5th Pay Commission recommendations.
All major allowances are proposed to be revised upward, translating into 1.5X to 2X increase, with rationalisation in certain allowances, as per the recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission.
The report, which was submitted to Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh recently, has been sent to the Finance Department for detailed study and directions for placing it before the Cabinet this month for further action. The report, as per government's commitment in the Vidhan Sabha, is to be implemented from July 1 this year.
Incidentally, the report comes at a time when the state's economy is already deeply stressed and the financial situation is precarious, amid Coivd, with taxes not going up and even GST compensation slated to end from next year. The Finance Department will examine the various implications before submitting the report to the Cabinet for further action.
According to a spokesperson of the CM's office, significant hike has been proposed in the report in Pensions and dearness allowance (DA), while Fixed Medical Allowance and Death cum Retirement Gratuity are recommended to be doubled under the scheme suggested by the 6th Pay Commission. While fixed medical allowance has been recommended to be doubled to Rs 1000/- per month for employees as well as pensioners uniformly, the maximum limit of Death cum Retirement Gratuity is proposed to be enhanced from Rs 10.00 lakh to Rs 20.00 lakh.
Enhancement in ex-gratia grant rates in the case of death of government employee, as also in case of death in harness directly attributable to the duty performed, is another key recommendation aimed at benefitting government employees. This is significant in view of the prevailing pandemic crisis, where a large number of government employees are working as frontline workers, with many of them losing their lives in the line of duty.
(With ANI inputs)
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