Announcing the hike, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said the state government reviewed its position and considered to allow the benefit of the re-fixation of pay and pension of the state government employees and pensioners using 1.86 multiplication factors notionally from January 2006 and with financial benefit from January 1 this year.
He said this decision was taken yesterday at the meeting of council of ministers and additional financial implication is estimated to be about Rs 265.10 crore per annum.
Sarkar said before announcing the pay hike for the employees and pensioners, the state government reviewed its funds position and found that it was considerably consolidated by using austerity in the administration and collection of taxes, particularly sale taxes of commodities.
"Still we have paucity of funds but we decided to increase the salaries and pensions because it is also difficult to cope with the spiralling price hike of essential commodities," he added.