Maharashtra seeks aid to implement sixth pay panel

While subtly opposing the Centre's move to propose the Sixth Pay Commission, the Maharashtra state government has asked for substantial help from the central government if it will have to implement the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission.

A senior official of the state finance ministry said before making a formal announcement of the Sixth Pay Commission, the Centre had asked all the state governments to send their comments on it.

"Accordingly, we had sent a letter to the central government on May 23, in which we asked it to help us meet the additional burden which the sixth Pay Commission recommendations would impose on our resources," the official said.

The official pointed out that after the state government decided to implement the Fifth Pay Commission, the state's financial burden was increased by Rs 7,000 crore in the first year. In the subsequent years, the pay panel put an additional burden of nearly Rs 4,000 crore on the state exchequer, he said.

However, due to the increase in revenues and the abolition of nearly 29,000 posts, the state managed to bring down percentage of its wage bill from 75 per cent to below 50 per cent, he said.

"Though the terms of references of the Sixth Pay Commission have not been declared yet, our conservative estimate is that it will increase the state's burden by Rs 7,000-10,000 crore a year," he said.

Retired bureaucrat Madhav Godbole, who was the state's finance secretary in the late 1980s and introduced the concept of zero budget, said, "The central government and most of the state governments have passed the Fiscal Management Responsibility Bill and the Sixth Pay Commission must take into consideration this aspect before making any recommendations."

"Though pay commissions are implemented to decide the salary structure of central government employees, earlier experience has shown that the state governments have to accept the recommendations sooner or later. So while making recommendations, the ability of the states must be also taken into consideration by the pay commission," added Godbole.