 "7th Pay Commission inflates Uttar Pradesh salary bill by 12%")
With the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government accepting the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission, the annual salary and pension bill of the state has inflated by over 12 per cent.
According to budgetary estimates, the annual salary, pension and the interest bill of UP was pegged at Rs 1,45,635 crore for 2016-17.
However, with the state cabinet meeting chaired by UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav here yesterday approving the 7th Pay Commission recommendations, the state coffers would get poorer by an additional Rs 18,000 crore.
The revised salary, pension, and interest bill would rise to Rs 1,63,635 crore, which is 12.35 per cent higher than the earlier projected figure for the financial year.
The consolidated bill of Rs 1,63,635 crore would account for over 60 percent of the state revenue expenditure of about Rs 2,71,354 crore (including Rs 18,000 crore of additional burden).
The government's decision would benefit an estimated 16.52 lakh government employees and 10.50 lakh pensioners' families in the state. It includes state employees, teachers and non-teaching staff of aided educational and technical training institutions, employees of local bodies, district panchayats, development authorities, public sector undertakings/corporations and autonomous institutions.
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Earlier, the Akhilesh government had constituted the state pay committee headed by retired state bureaucrat G B Patnaik in light of the Centre deciding to implement the 7th Pay Commission recommendations retrospectively from January 1, 2016.
The Committee thoroughly studied the modalities of implementation and implications of pay hike in the context of UP and submitted its report to the government on December 7, 2016.
The committee had recommended providing hikes with retrospective effect from January 1, 2016, in the state. The government would settle arrears in the next two financial years.
The committee had recommended a minimum scale of Rs 18,000 to a maximum of Rs 2.24 lakh per month. The average salary hike is touted at 14-18 per cent.
Meanwhile, the additional burden of Rs 18,000 crore would include Rs 1,133 crore to be paid on account of 2 per cent increase in dearness allowance (DA) with effect from July 1, 2016.
With state polls due in early 2017, the ruling Samajwadi Party dispensation had acted hurriedly to announce the benefit with polls at the threshold.
During the tenure of previous chief minister Mayawati, the government in November 2008 had approved the recommendations of the state pay committee on the 6th Pay Commission for the 1.5 million state employees. Then, the new pay scales for the government employees and pensioners had also come into effect with retrospective effect from January 1, 2006.