BIHAR : Docs' assn urges govt to implement provisions of 6th pay panel.

The Bihar State Health Services Association on Sunday urged the state government to implement the provisions of the Sixth Pay Commission,
applicable for Central government doctors, in toto for them as well. The association, at its meeting of extended executive body, also passed a resolution that its members were willing to accept all the logical conditions of the state government for getting the benefit.

Sunday executive meeting also thanked the state government for giving the association members benefit of Central payscale and dynamic ACP and expressed hope that the government would take steps for strengthening the medical directorate.

Discussion on anomalies in the government rules, 2008, dealing with service conditions of government doctors also took place and the committee urged the government to remove anomalies dealing with things like minimum qualification for appointment as government doctor and changes in the criteria for being appointed in administrative grade posts.

The meeting was chaired by association president Dr Ram Nagina Singh and IMA, Bihar chapter, office-bearers, including its president, Dr Raman Verma and secretary Dr Arun Kumar Thakur.

Many govt employees still to get pay arrears.

Many of the five million government employees are yet to receive the retroactive portion of a salary hike that came into effect from January 2006 after the Union government implemented the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations.

The employees started getting a new salary from 1 September, but the delay in clearing the so-called arrears is causing some angst among employees, many of whom live in states where elections are being held now.

The Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government announced an average increase of 21% in the salaries of government employees in August. But only the employees of Union ministries have received their payouts so far.
The government had planned to disburse 40% of the Rs29,373 crore as arrears during 2008-09 and the remaining 60% in 2009-10.

“The arrears have been received by the employees working in the Union ministries and the main (Central) secretariat. However, the employees working in field offices and attached organizations or offices of the ministries are yet to get the arrears. There were no such problems at the time of arrear payments for the Fifth Pay Commission,” said an official in the Union ministry of information and broadcasting, who didn’t want to be named.

“While the ministries employ less than 10% of the workforce, the balance work with these offices. The pay and account offices of these organizations have been demanding money for the payments.”Most of the subordinate bodies in the ministries are yet to receive it,” said another government official, asking not to be named.
Senior officials in the ministries of power, petroleum and natural gas, shipping and road transport, and highways confirmed that the arrears have been received by their personnel.

“There have been some incidents of Central government employees posted in the states not getting the arrears payment. I think employees who have not received their money even now should protest,” says M.K. Pandhe, a politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Such incidents have been sporadic and “there have been no large-scale instances of employees not having been paid arrears”, he added.
“The orders for the arrears payment has been passed in keeping with the recommendations cleared by the Union cabinet. From our end, everything has been done. If there is a problem, it could be a minor bureaucratic problem at the execution level,” said a senior finance ministry official, who didn’t want to be named.

While the wage hike has increased the financial burden of the government by Rs17,798 crore annually, it has also increased the rate of annual increment from 2.5% to 3%.
The government has also raised the minimum entry-level salary of a government employee to Rs7,000 against Rs6,660 recommended by the commission, headed by justice B.N. Srikrishna, which submitted the report in March.

Drawing and disbursing officers prepare the bills and pass it on to pay and account officers, who then process the payment and record it on a computer software created for the purpose, called Compact. While the Controller General of Accounts is of the opinion that the computerized process cuts down delays, there are still some allegations that there is potential for graft at the pay and account offices stage.
Six states of Jammu and Kashmir, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi are going to polls.

The first phase of polling took place in Chhattisgarh on 14 November and in Jammu and Kashmir on 17 November. Government employees don’t form a significant portion of the overall electorate.

Now, judges demand pay hike.

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Judges in India are pretty powerful but now they want more power and status. NDTV has learnt that the Chief Justice of India (CJI) has written to the Law Minister asking for a pay hike to keep up with bureaucrats after the Sixth Pay Commission.

It seems that the issue goes far beyond money.

The four-page letter written by the Chief Justice of India has created a flutter. Implementation of his request will first need the Cabinet's approval and then the Parliament's sanction.

The controversy is not about them wanting more money. The government doesn't know what to do with the CJI's request to bring his pay at par with the Governor's scale.

Before the Sixth Pay Commission, the Chief Justice of India's basic salary at Rs 33 thousand was on par with the Cabinet Secretary and Rs three thousand less than the Governor's pay. Now the Chief Justice wants his salary to be hiked to Rs 1.1 lakh the same as the Governor.

The Chief Justice also wants a hike for other judges. Rs 1 lakh for Supreme Court colleagues and Rs 90,000 for High Court judges. That's the salary of the Cabinet Secretary-- India's top bureaucrat.

Source NDTV

East Delhi schools oppose fee hike demand by city public schools.

A group of schools in East Delhi are opposing the fee hike proposed for private, unaided schools across the Capital. They fear a large number of students will drop out if the fees are raised.

The Trans-Yamuna Public Schools’ Federation, comprising 150 institutions from East Delhi, has petitioned the Directorate of Education (DoE) to reconsider the pay hike.

The Federation says small public schools in the area cater to lower income group families, and parents would not be able to afford private schooling if the Pay Commission recommendations were implemented as they are. The private schools are pushing for a fee hike apparently to pay teachers as per recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission.

But S P Jalan, secretary of the Trans-Yamuna Public Schools’ Federation, said, “If we have to pay teachers as per the Pay Commission’s recommendations, then fees would have to be increased to more than Rs 3,000 per month.

Parents who opt for these schools (in East Delhi) cannot afford to spend that much per child.”

Jalan is also chairman of Mayo International School in IP Extension. He said fees in Trans-Yamuna public schools are in the region of Rs 700 per month.

Though the area has several government schools, people here, too, prefer the small private schools. “I am not educated but I want my son to study in an English-medium school,” Kalyanpuri resident Poonam Devi said. “My husband owns a shop but expenses are already to steep. I don’t know what we will do if schools raise fees.”

Jalan said “lack of trust” in government schools has led to the explosion of small private schools in the area.

While people in pockets of East Delhi — such as IP Extension, Nirman Vihar, Surajmal Vihar among others — can afford to spend more on education and send their children to bigger schools such as DPS Noida, Amity, Lovely Public School etc, the commoners would be hit hard by the proposed fee hike, Jalan said. Many residents of East Delhi are second- or third-level government employees, own small businesses or work in the unorganised private sector. And these are the people who zero in on small private schools for what they feel is a better education for their children.

“Prices are hitting the sky and though both I and my wife work, it would be difficult to afford the fee hike. We have two school-going children and our savings will take a massive hit,” Ajay Jain, who owns a small business in East Delhi, said.

O P Rai, general secretary of the schools’ association, said if they increase fees schools would also have to pay more taxes to the municipality. “House tax (property tax) is calculated according to the fee. So if we are forced to raise fees, taxes will also rise,” Rai said. “Almost 70 per cent schools in Trans-Yamuna areas may have to shut down in such a scenario.”

The larger schools, however, insist the fee hike is necessary. R K Sharma, principal of Ahlcon Public School in Mayur Vihar, said the Pay Commission recommendations were on the expected lines and schools will have to increase fees in order to be in business.

R P Malik of Lovely Public School said parents are prepared for the hike. “Those who can’t afford private schooling will have to shift their children to a government school,” Malik said. “You can’t expect a school to operate on low fees and yet pay (increase) teachers’ salaries.”

Delhi’s Director of Education Chandra Bhushan Kumar, meanwhile, said concerns of all schools will be taken into account before rules are formulated. “We have constituted a committee under retired IAS officer S L Bansal to work out modalities of the fee hike,” he said. “The committee will study financial data submitted by each school and work out a scheme that will suit everyone concerned.”

The committee has been given a month to submit its report.

According to the Directorate of Education, no private school is allowed to hike fees.

What Trans-Yamuna schools say

Students in most smaller private schools come from families not that economically well-off and might pull out if fees go up

Parents say cannot afford raised fees since they might go as high as Rs 3,000 per month

Schools say fee hike would mean raise in tax to MCD.

Result: Many would be forced to down shutters

What opponents say

Hike is necessary to pay teachers as per 6th Pay Commission recommendations Parents who can’t afford private schooling should opt for govt schools

What education department says Formed a committee to look into issue

Will look at issues of all concerned and out report in month’s time

Manipur : Fifteen departments' proposal of pay structure approved.

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COMMITTEE OF Officers constituted to assess adoption of 6th pay commission to the employees of the state in its sitting today has approved proposal of pay structures put up by 38 departments/offices which were rejected as "incomplete" but approved of 15 departments/offices.

The Committee of Officers headed by the state Chief Secretary, mention may be made that was constituted by an order of the state government issued on October 1 last to look into the revision of pay scales of the state government employees based on the recommendations of the sixth Central Pay Commission as adopted by the Central government.

Today's sitting of the committee having seven members with state principal secretary finance as convenor discussed on the proposals of the pay structures recommended by the heads of department or offices under the state government, official source said.

It was the third meeting of the committee since its inception and next round of meeting is scheduled to hold on November 10 next.

So far 53 departments/offices have so far submitted category-wide pay structures of its employees.

The proposals were discussed by the committee today but only 15 of them were found to be complete and flawless while the remaining 38 were found incomplete and rejected, the source said.

The 15 offices/departments which the committee approved included state department of horticulture, forest, development (monitoring shell), labour, employment exchange, planning, economic and statistic, power, IFCD, fire services, civil defense, science and technology, youth affairs and sports departments, etc.

the source said.

Among the rejected proposal it included proposal of all units/sections of the state police department, the source said.

There are 32 units/sections in the police department.

It is pertinent to mention that the Committee of Officers is to submit its reports within four months to the state finance department for onward recommendation to the state government for approval.

Among other the term and reference of the committee included to review the existing pay anomalies that already been submitted to the finance department and recommend appropriate corrections if any apart from reviewing the existing pay scales of state government employees and recommend the revised pay scales on the basis of the Central government pay scales as per the job requirement for each category.

The committee will also review the existing allowances and benefits as applicable to the state government employees and recommend appropriate allowances and benefits with and without modifications and also review the existing pension structure and recommend appropriate revision in pension rates.

To look into and suggest steps to rationalize staff deployment and functions with the objective of improving efficiency and better governance in the working of the government departments is also another term of reference of the Committee on Officers.
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UGC asks universities to pay arrears.

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The University Grants Commission has directed all central universities and deemed universities maintained by it to make an ad-hoc payment
towards the first instalment of arrears accruing on account of the implementation of the sixth pay commission recommendations.

In a communication to registrars of central universities and UGC maintained deemed universities, UGC joint secretary Renu Batra requested that this instalment of arrears should be paid by Deepavali. “In view of the procedural requirement, it may take more time to get approval from the union ministry of human resources development for implementing the recommendations of the sixth pay commission. Therefore, the universities can pay the arrears on an ad-hoc basis,” she said.

The first instalment of arrears constitutes 40% of the total arrears. The universities can deduct the income tax at source while making the ad-hoc payment towards arrears, Renu Batra added.

“Till the non-plan additional grants are released on account of implementation of the sixth pay commission or due to immediate non-availability of funds under non-plan, the university may make the payments towards ad-hoc arrears of first instalments from grants available with the universities from other schemes and the same may be recouped once the additional non-plan grants are released by the UGC for implementation of the sixth pay commission,” she added.

Source Times Of India
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NASA pros send resumes to India.

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With Chandrayaan-I less than half way (1, 64, 600 km) to its rendezvous with the Moon, Indian space establishment’s credentials seem good enough for job inquiries from scientists from around the world.

“I have got 10 to 12 (emails),” Chandrayaan project director Dr M Annadurai told the Hindustan Times, adding, “and am sure some of my bosses have also got such mails.” And all these came after the Chandrayaan launch.

These feelers are mostly from scientists of US’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA). They want to work for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

“There are some Indians who want to come back home,” said Annadurai, “but there are also citizens of other countries working for NASA and ESA who have mailed enquiries about openings at various levels in ISRO.”

And, he says, they were willing to take huge salary cuts, because ISRO doesn’t pay as much as their current employers, despite the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission.

Senior scientists like Dr. Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, the former ISRO Chairman, are not surprised. In fact, he did perceive an “inspirational impact” when he planned the Moon mission.
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Govt accepts Pay Panel proposal for deceased soldiers.

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This is one proposal of the 6th Central Pay Commission which is likely to bring cheer to the ruing armed forces personnel.

The government has accepted a CPC recommendation that the state exchequer bear the travel cost of deceased personnel's family members from the place of death to his village or funeral site.

"The government has accepted the 6th CPC recommendation that travel by fastest means including air shall be authorised for onward and return journeys to dependents of deceased armed forces personnel for conducting customary social rites for all ranks," Defence Minister A K Antony told Rajya Sabha yesterday.

In his action taken reports relating to the Standing Committee on Defence, Antony said the Service headquarters had moved a proposal with the CPC on conveyance of "dead bodies" and relatives of deceased Service personnel by air or the fastest means of travel.

The Committee had in its report noted that during the members' visit to Andaman and Nicobar Island and North Eastern States, they had observed that in case of casualties or death of soldiers, the body was sent to their native place by flights, but the family members were not allowed to travel in the same flight because it was not mentioned in the guidelines.

"This is a sorry state of affairs. Therefore, the Committee strongly feels that appropriate financial delegation at the lower level should be given to incur travelling expenditure of the family members along with the body of the deceased soldiers," the committee had said.

In its reply, the government said travel regulations formulated in 1991 applicable on armed forces personnel already contained provisions for one of the family members to accompany the deceased by air, steamer, rail or road.

The regulations provided that one family member of the personnel, who died while in service in peace or field station, including those killed in action be allowed to perform journey by the fastest mode of transport between the place of death and place of last rites, it said.

In addition, the dead personnel, killed in the border or line of control, operations and counter-insurgency operations in India and abroad were also transported by the fastest mode pf transport available, accompanied by a person, who may either be a family member or a person deputed by the family or a unit representative from the place of occurrence to his home town.

"In this regard, the powers have also been delegated to the lowest level of commanding officer of the unit or formation to sanction expenditure on transportation of the dead personnel accompanied by an attendant," the reply said.

Antony said Indian Airlines was allowing transport free of charge on its domestic sectors of dead officers and personnel of the armed forces. However, the airline does not provide free transportation of family members.

"Service headquarters have also moved a proposal to the CPC on conveyance of the dead soldiers by air. It will be appropriate if the government pay for the transportation of the dead soldiers, rather than the airlines granting it a concession," Antony said.

Bureau Report
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BJP demands representation of services on pay panel.

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Concerned over pay anomalies for the armed forces, the Opposition BJP on Thursday demanded representation of services on the Pay Commission and setting up of a statutory body for welfare of ex-servicemen.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Leader of Opposition Jaswant Singh said it was "unusual" for service chiefs to voice discontent in public, but added that it was done because of unusual circumstances.

Expressing concern over shortage of 18,000 officers in the armed forces, Singh demanded one-rank-one-pension and resettlement scheme for the ex-servicemen.

The Prime Minister and the Defence Minister should consider these demands sympathetically and address the issues raised by them, Singh said.

Singh, himself an ex-serviceman, said if this was not done, military personnel would lose their morale. "If you do not give them self-respect, you will be robbing the central impulse of military morale," he said.

He said the government should also consider the demand for inflation-indexed pension to neutralise the impact of price rise and must attempt to eliminate the anomalies in the Sixth Pay Commission.

Singh said a statutory commission should look into welfare of the ex-servicemen. Personnel from the services retire at the age of 36 years when "they have full life ahead", he said adding, though jobs are scarce, ex-servicemen are vital for the country.

Source THE HINDU
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Resentment Among Personnel Against Report of Sixth Pay Commission.

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The Services had submitted a detailed representation to the Government bringing out certain issues arising out of the report of the Sixth Central Pay Commission. The Government has decided on most of the issues. Subsequently, few more issues have been raised by the Services viz. grant of higher grade pay to Service officers, placement of Lt. Col. and equivalent in PB-4, reinstatement of pensionary weightages for Personnel Below Officer Rank (PBOR), providing HAG + Pay Band for Lt. Generals and equivalent holding post of Principal Staff Officer, Director Generals, Controllers, etc.

No officer of Navy, Air Force has sought pre-mature retirement (PMR) on the ground of dis-satisfaction with the Sixth Central Pay Commission Report. However, in the Army, since March, 2008 a total number of 584 officers (less Army Medical Corps/Army Dental Corps & Military Nursing Service) have applied for pre-mature retirement/resignation on ground of non-empanelment, compassionate ground, low medical category, failure to acquire minimum technical qualification and better employment in civil life. However, from this it cannot be ascertained that they have sought an exit due to resentment against Sixth Pay Commission Report.

The Government have decided that the Minister of External Affairs will look into the issues raised by the Services and give recommendations, in consultation with the Defence Minister and the Finance Minister.

This information was given by Defence Minister Shri AK Antony in a written reply to Prof Vijay Kumar Malhotra and Shri Santosh Gangwar in Lok Sabha.

Source PIB
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Ex-servicemen stage hunger strike.

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Haemorrhaging under the onslaught of an ever-mounting number of officers seeking premature retirement, coupled with the sheer inability to
attract bright youngsters to their fold, the armed forces continue to simmer with anger over their new revised pay scales.

While serving armed forces personnel certainly cannot take to the streets in protest, veterans are not bound by any such restriction. Even as defence minister A K Antony told Parliament that there was a shortage of 13,830 officers in Forces, scores of ex-servicemen and their wives were detained by the police on Monday for trying to stage a hunger strike at India Gate against the 6th Pay Commission just a kilometre away.

"The pay commission has done grave injustice to the Forces. It is not the question of money but that of our status, izzat and self-esteem,’’ said Lt-Gen (retd) Raj Kadyan and Maj-Gen (retd) Satbir Singh, who were among the scores detained by the police. The veterans, incidentally, are also demanding the implementation of the 'one-rank, one-pension' principle.

All this comes even as the three-member ministerial committee, headed by foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee, is yet to finalize its recommendations about the "core concerns" raised by the armed forces about their revised pay scales.

The forces hold their extant parity with their civilian and paramilitary counterparts had been "destroyed" by the new pay scales, with the committee of secretaries actually introducing ‘‘far more serious anomalies’’ rather than resolving the ones present in the 6th Pay Commission report.

Source TOI
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Sixth pay panel triggers hike for PSU employees.

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The government has finally decided to revise the pay scales of employees working in 69 public sector undertakings (PSUs) on the lines of the Sixth Pay Commission offered to central government staff.

The benefit of pay revision will be allowed only to employees of those CPSUs that are not making losses and are in a position to absorb the additional expenditure from their own resources without any budgetary support.

The PSUs include Mahanagar Telecom Nigam (MTNL), Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC), NHPC and North-Eastern Electric Power Corporation (Neepco) among others. These PSUs follow the central dearness allowance pattern and are governed by a separate high power pay committee.

“The pay scales of the employees will be revised with effect from January 2006. It will be now up to the board of directors of the respective public sector company to consider the pay revision, keeping in mind the affordability and capacity of the CPSU. They’ll have to submit a proposal to their respective administrative ministry, which will approve the proposal with the concurrence of its financial advisor,” a department of public enterprise official said.

As per the recommendations, there will also be a revision in city compensatory allowance, house rent allowance and dearness allowance (DA).

Already in April this year, the government had increased the DA for PSUs by 6% with effect from January this year.

“This will make a stronger case for the early implementation of the second pay revision committee report for the companies following the industrial dearness allowance pattern. However, not all companies following the CDA pattern will be able to adopt the new pay revisions as some of them are sick or loss-making units,” the official said.

Source The Economic Times
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Central police forces against raising Lt Col rank above commandant.

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Continuing their tug-of-war on recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission report, central police organisations (CPOs) have strongly opposed some of the demands being made by the Armed Forces, including a proposal to elevate the rank of a Lieutenant Colonel above that of a commandant in central paramilitary forces (CPMFs).

In a memorandum submitted to Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee, who heads the committee to look into the grievances of the Armed Forces on the pay commission recommendations, the CPOs have argued that the demand of the Armed Forces was entirely unjustified and would result in operational difficulties if acceded to.

A delegation comprising officials from BSF, CRPF, ITBP and CISF met Mukherjee on Wednesday and explained why they were opposed to certain proposals, sources said. The delegation told the minister that the Armed Forces were using pressure tactics to get their demands met.

The Armed Forces have openly expressed their dissatisfaction with the pay commission recommendations and one of their demands has been to elevate the rank of a Lt Colonel above that of a commandant in a central police force. Both Lt Colonel and a commandant are placed as the commanding officer of a battalion but during times of joint operations, the Armed Forces commander takes precedence. The Armed Forces have used this to argue that a Lt Colonel should be treated as a higher rank.

However, the CPOs have pointed out a number of discrepancies in this argument. Sources said the delegation brought to the notice of the minister that while there were usually more than one Lt Colonel in a battalion — with the senior most being the commanding officer — only one commandant was present in a CPMF battalion.

The delegation argued that the work profile of a commandant was completely different and his promotion was based on his performance unlike that of a Lt Colonel who gets time-bound promotions. Sources said it was only after
considering these that the Sixth Pay Panel had recommended a higher rank for the commandant but the Armed Forces want it reversed.
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CPOs, CPMFs throw in towel in Pay Commission bout.

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After the three armed forces, it is now the turn of the central police organisations (CPOs) and paramilitary forces (CPMFs) to raise a pit
ch for "parity" in pay scales with their military counterparts.

With the government setting up a three-member ministerial committee headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to consider the armed forces' plea, the CPOs too have decided to seek a political intervention to resolve issues concerning their pay scales. The chiefs of ITBP, BSF, CRPF and SSB will meet Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta to submit a memorandum seeking a political decision on the lines of Mukherjee committee for inclusion of their "second-in-command" rank officers in Pay Band-4, if the tri-services' Lieutenant Colonels and equivalents are included in this pay bracket.

The Pay Band-4 for Lt Cols is among the four "core issues" raised by the Army, Navy and Air Force in the 6th Central Pay Commission (CPC) and that led to Services refusing to implement the CPC, a decision taken by the Cabinet in August this year.

"The Director Generals (DGs) of all the CPOs and CPMFs will present a memorandum to the Home Secretary this week. We will urge Home Minister Shivraj Patil to request his cabinet colleague, Pranab Mukherjee, to include 'Second-in-Command' ranks also in Pay Band-4," Home Ministry sources said.
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Mukherjee discusses armed forces pay issue with Chidambaram.

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Efforts to resolve the alleged "anomalies" in the new pay scales for armed forces gained momentum with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday discussing the matter with Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.

Mukherjee, who is heading a three-member ministerial committee looking into the issue, held discussions with Chidambaram after holding consultations with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Mukherjee and Chidambaram were together for about an hour during which they are understood to have explored ways to address the issue to the satisfaction of the forces.
The Defence Services, led by their Chiefs, are up in arms over the 6th Pay Commission recommendations, alleging that it compromised their status and honour.

Emerging from the meeting at the External Affairs Minister's South Block office, Chidambaram refused to comment on the deliberations, saying it was his first meeting with Mukherjee on the issue.

Mukherjee yesterday said he had discussed the matter with the Prime Minister and that he hoped the issue would be settled shortly.

The committee, which also includes Antony and Chidambaram, was set up by the Prime Minister on September 25 in the wake of deep resentment in the armed forces, who complained that there were "anomalies" in the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations and that it had lowered the status of their officers.
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Rajasthan implements Sixth Pay Commission.

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A Dusshera or Diwali Gift from the Government for the female employees - The Maternity Leave has been increased from 135 days to 180 days. Not only that, the official communication on this said that the Government is allowing this new 6 months Maternity Leave for the women employees who are currently on Maternity leave - which means that female employees presently on maternity leave can now extend their Maternity leave to six months. 

However, this has been implemented only in Rajasthan by the Vasundhra Raje Government. It's election year, and the government will leave no stone unturned to showcase that they are working for the benefit of the people. Hopefully, other states are expected to follow soon.
Suitable amendments are also being made in the Rajasthan Service Act for incorporating the increased leave.

As per the news, the Rajasthan state government also accepted the demands of a section of workers and grant Assured Career Progression (ACP) to them at nine, 18 and 27 years of service if they have already availed of selection payscale at these years.

Earlier, the government on September 12, 2008, while announcing the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission, had decided to follow the lines of the Centre and give ACP to its workers only after the com-pletion of 10, 20 and 30 years of service.

In yet another bonanza for its employees, the state government also changed its earlier stance of deducting the house rent for those employees staying at government quarters from September 1, 2008 instead of the earlier announced January 1, 2007.

A release from the state government clarified that the government on September 12, 2008, had announced that the deduction for those workers staying in government houses on a revised rate would be imple-mented from January 1, 2007 - the date from which the state has agreed to pay arrears to its employees.

However, now the decision stands revised and the employees will not have to pay the sum accruing between January 1, 2007 to August 31, 2008.

Rajasthan is the first state in the country to have notified the recommendation of the Sixth Pay Commission and has decided to implement it in the state for its employees from September 1, 2006.

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It's not pay - it's a question of status.

Lt Gen HS Bagga (Retd), former Director General (Personnel) in the Army and co-author of the Ajay Vikram Singh (AVS) Committee report on restructuring the Army officer cadre, tells Aditi Phadnis why the men in uniform are not happy.

The government has taken two important HR steps to address the problems of defence personnel. It has announced some financial breaks in the Sixth Pay Commission report, and it has accepted recommendations of the AVS Committee relating to promotions. Are you satisfied?
Let’s take the AVS committee first. A few recommendations have been accepted, but most haven’t.

The government has agreed to create and fill additional vacancies of selection grade officers ranging from Colonel to Lieutenant General. It has also agreed to reduce, for purposes of promotion, the number of years in service put in by officers of the rank of Captain and Major. The Lieutenant Colonel was earlier a selection grade rank given after 16 to 17 years. It has now been made a time-based rank after 13 years. The government needs to be complimented for this decision.

But the most important recommendation which could have been a permanent solution to HR issues — making the Short Service Commission (SSC) the prime entry system into the Army — has not been accepted.

When you join the Army, you have the option of making a permanent career of it or leaving it after a fixed tenure. SSC is not an attractive proposition for youngsters today as it does not provide them a full career. After serving for a short tenure, their rehabilitation is the central issue. The report suggests that they be trained for another profession while they are in service.
At this point, we take in 1,000 regular commission and 500 SSC. This ratio, it was suggested, should be reversed as the utility of an officer is felt the most at the junior level. We don’t need so many senior officers because the Army follows a hierarchical system — a steep pyramid, if you like, having a large number of junior officers and very few senior officers

The problem is that all junior officers are extremely capable and it is very difficult to overlook them for promotion if they stay in the system.We need officers to peel off after 12-15 years of service. This can be achieved and more SSC appointed if we do the following:

Pay Rs 1 lakh for every year of service (because these officers will not be entitled to pension, for which the minimum service needed is 20 years).

Give two years’ study leave before the end of the tenure so that they can find an appropriate alternative career.

Relax the age norms for the UPSC exam so that these officers can take the central services examination.

Make Military Science a subject in the UPSC and allow them to take only four subjects in the examination.

Transfer them laterally to paramilitary forces as an alternative career.

Till the SSC is effective, the age profile of our Army will not change.

What happens today? Today, 1,000 officers join as permanent commissioned officers and all 1,000 are in the reckoning for promotions. We promote approximately 400 out of 1,000 as Colonels every year. The rest are superseded as there are no vacancies. If there are only 500 in the reckoning, hardly anyone will be left out.

You cannot lower the age profile overnight. In the interim, we had suggested five steps:
Additional selection grade vacancies — Col and above — which the government has done. This will bring the age profile down for a few years.

Allow officers to undertake any course in any university at the Army’s cost, while being considered on duty.

Provide paid vocational training or study leave without asking the officer to do residual service.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is ready to take Army officers but they say they must be trained. So the government could attach superseded officers with any industrial house at the Army’s cost.

An attractive Voluntary Service Severance Scheme that encourages superseded officers to leave after 20 years of service to start their own venture.

So what has the government done?What they’ve done is accepted the recommendation to create additional vacancies across all ranks, without creating the peel-off effect as suggested. This is shortsighted, because it just postpones the problem that will have to be faced again four or five years hence.

We’ve heard the views of the Chiefs on the Sixth Pay Commission. There is a feeling that whatever you give them, the services are always whining.This is not true. The Chiefs are not asking for additional salary — it is a question of status. Successive Pay Commissions have succeeded only in elevating the status of civil, police and paramilitary forces. In the 1960s, the Raghuramiah Committee had recommended the Army be equated with the IPS. Okay, we said. But over the years, the police have been upgrading their senior ranks, so the senior ranks in the Army are automatically downgraded. For example, in the Warrant of Precedence pre-1947, the head of the police in a state, that is, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), was equal to a Brigadier. Post-1947, an IGP became equal to a Major General. This obtained till the mid 1970s. Today a Director General of Police draws a salary higher than a Lieutenant General, because successive Pay Commissions have increased his salary to match a Lt General’s. Is this justified?
Status today in the Order of Precedence is equated with the salary, or the pay band in which one is located. The Sixth Pay Commission has fixed four pay bands. The civil and paramilitary forces including those working in Army Headquarters who were junior or equal to a Lt Col have been placed in pay band 3, whereas a Lt Col has been placed in pay band 4. We have a large number of Lieutenant Colonels. While their status has not been lowered, the status of other officers has been raised higher than them. This can create operational problems.

Let me give you an example. We have a Lt Gen commanding troops in the north-east which comprises several small states. He handles counterinsurgency operations. Each state has a DG police who was earlier drawing less pay than a Lt Gen and was required to attend all the meetings called by the Lt Gen to coordinate operations among several states. However, ever since the pay of DG Police was raised higher than that of a Lt Gen, they are reluctant to attend such meetings. If the Service Chiefs have voiced their concerns on these two issues should it be taken as an affront ?

This is not the only issue. Earlier Persons Below Officer Rank (PBOR) drew 75 per cent of their pay as pension. Normally a person’s pension is calculated on the basis of the last pay drawn, whereas in the case of PBOR it is calculated on the basis of the highest pay scale of the rank he was holding: for example, a Sepoy may have drawn Rs 3,700 per month at the time of his retirement, but if the highest grade in a sepoy’s salary was Rs 4,700, it was on Rs 4,700 that his pension was calculated. This actually worked out to a pension of nearly 75 per cent. The Sixth Pay Commission has reduced this to 50 per cent, on the ground that the soldier will be entitled to serve in the paramilitary forces after they leave the Army. The problem is, the second part is not happening. So the Chiefs are saying: give them their original pension.

We should not look at this as a problem of the defence forces. We should see it as a national problem.
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UGC Pay Panel: widespread discontent among readers.

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Though UGC Pay Panel recommendations have been welcomed, there is widespread discontent among readers for being placed in the same pay band as lecturers.

A large number of readers have been writing condemning the University grants Commissions’ move, many of the university teachers have called it unfortunate while others have used stronger language against the committee.

The UGC Pay review committee has proposed more than 70 percent increase in the salary of university and college teachers and other staff.

Here are some views of teachers on the issue.

Dr R Ravichandran
Associate Professors, in college or in university should be placed in PB-4. How can you differentiate persons of same cadre in different places of education?. Who is superior?. Associte Prof. in a college or in university?. College is part of a university after all. UGC should remove this anomoly and both should be placed in PB-4 along with professors with differential Grade pay and academic pay. HRD should be told about this anomoly.

A Sathyamurthy
I have been in the Selection Grade Asst Professor cadre for the last 15 years and have been condemned to continue to stagnate there by the latest UGC Pay Panel. I must be given the PB-4 scale of 37400-67000. Nothing short of it is justice! The MHRD should do justice to the Selection Grade Lecturers before the formal acceptance of the Government is announced.

Dr RS Singh
It is totally illogical step to place three different cadres (Lect., Senior Lect. and Reader) of university in same pay band. It seems that the UGC Pay Committee has not done even basic calculation before finalizing the report. In this commission there will be great loss to post like Dy. Registrar because they don’t have Promotion Avenue after this post (in university there is only one post of registrar).

RR Meghwal
How can be an associate professor equilised with assistant professor? A newly recruited assistant professor would get equal salary with that of newly promoted/selected associate Professor. There would be around 75% hike in the salary of Professor as agianst only 30%in case of associate Professor.The Chadha committee has recomended lower band for associate Professor(Band3)while govt has put Pay scale ending at Rs.18300 in PB 4.Therefore all Associate Professor should be placed in PB4 without discrimination.The age of retirement should also reduced to 60 years.

K Srikumar
It is clear from analysis that administrative interest is given higher weightage (based on Principals and Professors given pay band 4)than for those who involved in academic work (Asst upto Assoc Professors). Otherwise the wide disparity between the start of PB3 and PB4 should not be there. Differences within the 5th pay commission scales were reasonable and consistent. Academic positions and academic salaries are for encouraging academic work,and knowledge creation, as that in foreign universities.

Dr YC Bhat
In the new UGC pay scales when only two scales are proposed than why not they should have finished the cadre of associate professor.Than such discremination with associate professors could have been avoided.Associate professors working and stagnant at 18300 from last so many years will be again blocked at 39100.In many universities CAS are not conducted regulary or conducted only once due to State govt restrictions will at big loss in new payscales.Therefore, to remove this heart burning differnce Sr Associate Professor in 37000 to 67000 be also given in Universiy System. UGC and HRD Ministry should give a serious thought over this.

Brahhaiah
Associate Professors, in college or in university should be placed in PB-4. How can you differentiate persons of same cadre in different places of education?. Who is superior?. Associte Prof. in a college or in university?. College is part of a university after all. UGC should remove this anomoly and both should be placed in PB-4 along with professors with differential Grade pay and academic pay. HRD should be told about this anomoly.

OP Sahu
earlier before 5th pay commission, Lect. , Reader, and Prof. were in scales staring 2200, 3700 and 4500 respectively. Now It will be about 22000, 30000, and 48000, respectively. Therefore readers are at a great loss. They must be placed in PB4, or around 37000.
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Teaching fraternity stands against anomalies in UGC Pay Panel.

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After armed forces it is the turn of the teaching fraternity to stand against anomalies in UGC Pay Panel recommendations.

Teachers who initially seemed very happy with around 70 percent pay hikes as suggested by the University Grants Commission Pay review committee are now up in arms against the panel accusing it to be insensitive towards some segments among the teaching fraternity.

Even the Left leaning teachers’ organizations that had said everything good regarding the recommendations are slowly coming forward to criticize the Chaddha committee recommendations.Dr GK Chaddha a former Jawaharlal Nehru University vice chancellor headed the University Grants Commission Pay panel.Teachers and teachers union, both have their grouses.

University and college readers are annoyed by the fact that they have been bracketed with lecturers. Says a university reader “How can be an associate professor equilised with assistant professor?

A newly recruited assistant professor would get equal salary with that of newly promoted/selected associate Professor. There would be around 75% hike in the salary of Professor as agianst only 30%in case of associate Professor.

The Chadha committee has recommended lower band for associate Professor (Band3) while govt has put Pay scale ending at Rs.18300 in PB 4.

Therefore all Associate Professor should be placed in PB4 without discrimination. The age of retirement should also reduced to 60 years.”Teaching associations say that their major demands have been ignored by the UGC Pay panel that could help attract and retain best of the brains towards academics.

The Delhi University Teachers’ Association has said major demands of teachers for higher pay scale to lecturers so as to attract talent to the university system have not been accepted. “The demand for introduction of Professor’s grade in all colleges to retain talent has not been considered by the committee headed by Prof. G.K. Chadha,” it said.

In the meantime Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) representatives on Monday met UGC chairman, Mr Sukhadeo Thorat, to air their grievances, its president, Mr Aditya Narayan Mishra, said.
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Army denies preparing, circulating "note" against bureaucrats.

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Strongly denying any differences with the government over the pay commission report, the Army on Tuesday said it "neither prepared nor circulated" a document that cast aspersions on bureaucrats alleging they discriminated against the armed forces by misleading the political leaders.

It also said the government and the three services were working together towards resolving all outstanding issues over the 6th Central Pay Commission and the high-level committee, headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, was already looking into their grievances.

"The army has neither prepared nor circulated any document or note containing allegations or casting aspersions on government officials," it said, reacting to a news report on a television channel aired this afternoon.

Clarifying that there was "no truth whatsoever" in the allegations, it said, "The army headquarters has investigated the claims (of the report) and has found that no such document was ever prepared or circulated by it".

Vehemently denying differences with the government, the Army said its views on the pay commission have been well articulated by its chief, General Deepak Kapoor, time and again.

"There are no differences amongst the army, the other two services and the government on the issue, all of whom are working together towards resolving the outstanding matter soon. The issue is already before the nominated group of ministers for its consideration," it added.

source PTI
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Highlights of UGC’s Pay Review Committee.

Suggestion submitted by UGC’s Pay Review Committee.
Annual Increment

3% of the Basic Salary ( Basic Pay + Grade Pay) with compounding effect

4% of the Basic Salary(Basic Pay + Grade Pay)with compounding effect for 2 years for a select few 25% in the Pay Band Rs. 15600-39100 on the basis of better teaching and research performance.

Fresh appraisals are be made after two years.Stagnation RemovalAn incumbent after reaching the top of the scale in the pay band shall move to the next pay band without any change in the grade pay.

Increments for Higher Qualifications/ on Promotion.Five advance increments instead of present four to a Ph.d degree holder at the time of recruitment as Assistant Professor.

Three advance increments instead of present two to an M.Phil degree holder at the time of recruitment as Assistant Professor.

Three advance increments to an incumbent holding M.Tech, M.D., M.S. L.L.M. degree at the time of recruitment as Assistant Professor.

Two advance increments to an incumbent who joins as Assistant Professor with basic M.A./MSc./M.Com etc. with NET/SET examination qualifications.

Two advance increments to an incumbent who joins as /Associate Professor in open selection.

Two advance increments to an incumbent on being promoted as /Associate Professor under CAS.Three advance increments instead of present two to an in-service teacher on completing Ph.D. degree.

Two advance increments instead of present one to an in-service teacher on completing M.Phil degree.

A selection committee may recommend up to seven instead of present five advance increments to an incumbent with higher merit, better publications and more experience etc.

All advance increments to be given on non-compounding basisAllowancesHouse Rent Allowance30% of basic salary for Category X cities (A-1 earlier) population 50 lakhs and above)

20% of basic salary for Category Y cities (A, B-1, B-2 earlier) population between 5 and 50 lakhs)

10% of basic salary for Category Z cities (C and unclassified earlier) (population below 5 lakhs)

Transport AllowanceRs. 3200/-plus DA thereon per month for A-1/A Class cities (13 notified cities)
Rs. 1600/- plus DA thereon per month for other CitiesChildren’s Education Allowance (CEA)Rs.

1000/- per child per month for upto a maximum of two children

Rs 3000/- per child per month for those residing in hostel, for upto two children.

However, both hostel subsidy and children education allowance cannot be availed of concurrently.

Academic AllowanceRs. 1500/- per month for Assistant Professor, Assistant Professor(Senior Scale), Assistant Professor(Selection Grade)

Rs. 1200/- per month for Associate Professor, Senior Associate Professor, Professor and Professor.

Special Compensatory (Hill Area) Allowance and Special Compensatory (Remote Locality) Allowance will be allowed as admissible to central government employees.

Special (Duty) Allowance for Teachers Serving in North Eastern Region including Sikkim and LadakhThe Committee recommends a Special (Duty) Allowance at the rate of 12.5% on pay plus grade pay to teachers serving in these areas as applicable to Central Government employees.
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Teachers welcome 70% pay hike by UGC’s Pay Review Committee.

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Teaching bodies have welcomed the 70% pay hike as suggested by UGC’s Pay Review Committee. The University Grants Commission (UGC) that had formed a committee to look into the university teachers and staff’s pay had submitted its report two days ago recommending across the board pay hike of approximately 75 percent.

Earlier he teachers were up in arms against the Chaddha Committee as the committee is called for the delay in submitting the report. The teachers say that when everyone was getting pay hikes they were left in lurch due to the delay caused by the inability of the committee to submit its report.

But the actual submission of the report has made teachers more than happy. Many said that they had expected the same pay hike as recommended by Sixth Pay Commission. Sixth Pay Commission had recommended almost 30 percent pay hike for the Central government employees.

The almost 70 percent pay hike makes a professor’s salary at par with that of IAS officers.In the meantime teachers unions have hailed the committee and its recommendations as very welcome. Ashok Burman, general secretary of the All India Federation of University and College Teachers Organisation says, “Certain recommendations of the committee are path-breaking like the starting salary of college and university teachers will now be more than those of IAS officers.

The Central Government will take full responsibility for the salary of college and university teachers for the first five years”.The UGC has tried to give new nomenclature to lecturer and readers and that has made a lecturers very happy.

Definitely an assistant professor looks better that simply a lecturer.H.C. Narang a member of the committee says, “Another additional new post is that of professor of eminence. This title may be conferred on not more than 10 per cent of the total strength of professors in a university.

This position will be bestowed on someone who has acquired national and international stature. The criteria for choosing them will be tough. In terms of pay package, professors of eminence and Vice-Chancellors will be at par (Rs. 80,000)”.

Profesor Chaddha while talking to reporters on Friday said, “At the college level, the post of Reader will be replaced with associate professor. A new position of senior associate professor has been proposed as a third avenue of promotion for college teachers. We have also asked that posts of professor be sanctioned for direct recruitment in colleges for disciplines that have postgraduate teaching. There should be at least one post of professor in such disciplines”.Chaddha also said, “Good teachers are must for spread of higher education, which has not reached the population living in remote areas. The tribals, dalits, women are still deprived of it. This situation must be changed if the country has to progress. In 11th five year plan, we have given stress on faculty development,” the Padmashree recipient said.
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Allowances to special forces may be hiked.

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The government is likely to increase "substantially" the allowances given to paramilitary force personnel to bring the amount "at par" with the armed forces. The allowances will be raised in the next 60 days, BSF director-general M.L. Kumawat said on Wednesday after taking over the new charge of chief of the border guarding force.

Mr Kumawat, who continues to hold the post of special secretary (internal security) in the home ministry, said that the paramilitary forces, who perform similar duties like the Army and are deployed in tough areas on the border besides countering left-wing extremism in various states, were not happy with the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission.

He said that the grievances have been taken up with the Centre and the home ministry and the finance ministry were working to raise the allowances in the next two months."We will have the allowances of our men raised substantially in the next 60 days. We are trying to bring it on par with the personnel of the armed forces," Mr Kumawat said.Equating the BSF with the Army,

Mr Kumawat said, "Our men do similar work like any other Army person. They guard the border to fight terrorism and Naxalism. They need to be given allowances."
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Forces introduce draft notification.

The armed forces on Monday initiated the move to issue draft notification for their new pay-packages (Sixth Pay Commission) following the formation of a high-level three-member ministerial committee to take up the issue of disparities in salaries of armed forces personnel vis-a-vis the paramilitary forces and civilian bureaucracy.


The government had announced the new packages for the armed forces in August after making certain modifications in the recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission report.

The armed forces had earlier refused to implement their new pay-packages in protest against these pay-disparities.

Indian Navy Chief and Chairman of the Chief of Staffs Committee Admiral Sureesh Mehta had earlier written to all naval personnel explaining the reasons for delay in the issue of the draft notification. But the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force have now initiated the move to issue the draft notification.

While the process would take time, the government had moved swiftly on Saturday to announce ad hoc payment of arrears for the current year to all ranks of the services at the earliest. This is in view of the forthcoming festive season.
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Forces Pay Hike vs Sixth Pay Commission.

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After the Armed Forces expressed huge disappointment over the Sixth Pay Commission report and rejected it outright, the PMO intervened and formed a 3-member committee to look into their grievances.

After consulting with the PM, who is away on a foreign visit, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee formed a committee with two other members Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Defence Minister A K Antony. Mr. Pranab Mukherjee will head the committee.

The committee will look into objections raised by armed forces over the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations. Defence Minister AK Antony expressed hope that armed forces will get their pay in new scales by Diwali.

He also assured that all anomalies in the pay will be duly addressed. The Defence Services have decided to accept the revised pay scales and submit the salary bills to the ministry until the committee submits its report the cabinet.President Dr. Pratibha Patil took note of the concerns of the armed forces and gave her sanction to the order for ad-hoc payment of arrears, which will help the defence personnel to manage their Diwali expenses.

Armed forces chiefs had made it public that they are not going to implement the 6th Pay Commission recommendations in its present form. They had clearly said that the discrimination in payment of officials in armed forces viz a viz civilian officials was unacceptable.There was also talked of armed forces personnel going to celebrate Divali as black day.

But luckily it seems that the direct intervention of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh from New York broke the ice and defence minister AK Antony gave his consent to form a panel to look into the anomalies in pay structure of armed forces.

There was also pressure from Defence Minister AK Antony on armed forces chief to implement the 6th pay commission from this month. He had made it amply clear that if the forces chief do not implement it, defence ministry will issue order in this regard.Luckily things seem to have been sorted out for now with armed forces chiefs deciding to toe the government line for now as the panel headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has been formed to look into the anomalies.I

n the meantime Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor on Sunday clarified that there were no differences between Government of India and armed forces over the anomalies in the Sixth Pay Commission report.

Army Chief said, “I want to clarify that talks of differences between armed forces and Indian Government is not correct and has been played up incorrectly”.“The fact that the Defence Ministry, Defence Minister and the Prime Minister are with us shows that he (Antony) is also part of the government, as we are. So there are no differences.

I think it has been played up a little incorrectly," General Deepak Kapoor said.He went on to add, “we have made our recommendations and government has set up a committee and let see how the deliberations go."After Prime Minister’s direct intervention on the issue the Centre hurriedly constituted the committee, which also includes Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Defence Minister A K Antony. The committee is expected to give interim relief within a week.

The Centre also said that all pending issues of the armed forces on pay hike would be resolved by the end of October.

Giving defence personnel reasons to cheer before Diwali, the government had yesterday ordered release of their ad-hoc arrears for the current year this week, even as the government said the armed forces would submit fresh salary vouchers tomorrow, paving the way for the 1.5 million personnel to take home the revised pay on October 1.

But the "discriminatory" pay commission report would come under fresh scrutiny with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is abroad, setting up a high-level ministerial committee yesterday to address their grievances. In the meantime after the setting up of the committee, the three service chiefs have decided to accept the revised salaries as per the sixth pay commission report.

They would submit the revised salary bills to the Union defence minister on Monday.Armed forces have claimed several anomalies in the revised pay structure. One of them being in the Lt Colonel rank and below. “A Lt Colonel is now paid Rs 10,000 less than his civilian counterparts. Over 19,000 officers are in this rank. Colonels and equivalent will get at least Rs 10,000 less than their counterparts in civil services and other Central organisations,” a senior army officer said.
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Military pay hike: Govt sets up panel.

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The government has finally responded to Army's continued displeasure over the pay hike.It has decided to form 3-member committee headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

The committee will also have Defence Minister AK Anthony and Finance Minister P Chidambaram as its members.The proposed committee will look into the grievances of the Armed Forces related to the remuneration being offered to them in the Sixth Pay Commission.

The decision was taken after PM was consulted in the US on the issue.All pending issues of Army on pay hikes will be addressed and resolved latest by October end.

All service headquarters - Army, Navy and Air Force - will issue notification on Monday to hand out the revised payscale according to the Sixth Pay Commission.

Source NDTV.COM
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‘Black Diwali’ for armed forces.

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It will be a ‘Black Diwali’ for the armed forces as they have refused to accept the new pay scales till the anomalies are corrected. Other Central services, including the Indian Police Service (IPS), are awaiting word from the government on their plea for rectification of defects in the Sixth Pay Commission’s pay scales.

While the armed forces have refused to accept the revised salaries that were to be given this month, IPS officers too will continue to draw the old pay scales. “Set right anomalies”
The three service chiefs have refused to accept the revised salaries till the anomalies, especially for the ranks of Lieutenant Colonels and Lieutenant Generals are corrected.

The intense feeling of having been let down at the Lt. Col level in all the three services prompted the service chiefs not to implement the Pay Commission’s recommendations across all ranks.
The service chiefs are wary of getting their grievances addressed by bureaucrats and want a decision at the political level.

The distrust with civilian officers has its genesis with the formation of the Pay Commission when the services pointed out that retired and serving personnel formed the largest component of Central government employees. Therefore, they pleaded for representation in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS)-dominated Sixth Pay Commission by pointing out that civilians would not be able to grasp the circumstances in which armed forces personnel operated. However, their demand was rejected.

Since then, they again felt short-changed by the bureaucracy when a review committee was set up to look into their complaints over the pay scales recommended by the Commission.

This review panel, again comprising IAS officers, failed to measure up to their expectations.
Since then, Defence Minister A.K. Antony, Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee Admiral Sureesh Mehta and the other two service chiefs have separately approached the Prime Minister for redressal.

Source The Hindu
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Defence Forces reject revised salaries under Pay Panel.

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The Defence Forces today did not submit their revised salary bills to the ministry's accounts office, effectively deferring implementation of the 6th Pay Commission report "with the existing anomalies" that affect personnel across all ranks.

"The Armed Forces have not raised their pay vouchers in the revised scales in accordance with the 6th Central Pay Commission (CPC) notification and have submitted bills in the old pay scales," a Defence Ministry source told PTI here.

Though the government had yesterday in principle accepted the Services' demand for restoring 70 per cent "extant pensionary weightage" to jawans on the basis of their last drawn pay, the Armed Forces are cut up with the Finance Ministry over the rejection of their three other demands concerning officers.

The CPC had recommended that the jawans be given 50 per cent "pensionary weightage" and provided an option of lateral entry into paramilitary and central police forces.The Armed Forces wanted the lateral entry scheme to be first approved and implemented by the government before the CPC recommendation on the 50 per cent "pensionary weightage" came into effect.

"We have accepted salaries this month under the old pay scales, as we expect the government to take a quick decision on all our demands soon after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh returns from his US visit on October 1," an Armed Forces officer said.

Source PTI
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Top babus will now fly first class.

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First class travel on international airlines has become a reality for top officials with the government issuing orders to substantially improve all travel rules in line with the Sixth Pay Commission's recommendations.

The high-end journeys can be undertaken by cabinet secretary and secretaries while officials a notch below can enjoy business class and all others can travel economy class.

For domestic official tours, all officers with a grade pay of Rs 10,000 or above can travel in business class or by AC first in trains. The entitlements of other officials have been revised from September 1 with the minimum being AC-III for those drawing Rs 4,200 or less as grade pay.

The government has taken a strong view on personal use of "mileage points" of frequent-flier officials and ordered that these points would accrue to the department concerned for concessional travel by others on official tours. "Any usage of these mileage points for purposes of private travel by an officer will attract departmental action.

This is to ensure that the benefits out of official travel, which is funded by the government, should accrue to the government," the order says. To ensure that tours are taken judiciously, the government has clarified that no additional funds would be provided on account of revision in entitlements.

The departments are expected to restrict official tours only to "absolutely essential" requirement. Journeys undertaken in buses and taxis, including air-conditioned ones, will be reimbursed on the basis of actual expenses for officers in grade pay up to Rs 4,200. Official tours in own cars or taxis can be reimbursed at the rate of Rs 16 per km. It would be Rs 8 per km for auto-rickshaws and scooters.

The highest daily expense for hotel stay would be Rs 5,000 now with additional food bills up to Rs 500. The limit goes down as per grade pay to a minimum daily entitlement of Rs 300. A composite transfer grant equal to one month's basic pay can be taken for change of stations beyond 20 km.

The weight limit for shifting household goods has been revised upwards. If an officer's spouse is working, he or she can claim 50% of the transfer grant if moving between same stations within six months but after 60 days of the spouse's transfer.

Source The Times Of India.
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Government gives 'in principle' nod to pay demand for jawans.

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The government has agreed to restore 70 per cent "pensionary weightage" to jawans, even as Defence chiefs on Thursday intensified efforts to get "anomalies" in the 6th Pay Commission notification removed.

"The government has given in principle approval to reverting to the 70 per cent pensionary weightage, as demanded by the Services, overruling the 50 per cent recommended by the Central Pay Commission (CPC), providing much-needed relief just before this Diwali," top Defence Ministry sources told reporters here. Espousing their cause, the Services chiefs today apprised Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar and officials in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on the issues.

Earlier, jawans used to get 70 per cent of their last drawn pay as pension calculated on the basis of their 10-month average salary before retirement. Under the CPC notification, the jawans, who form the backbone of the Armed Forces but retire at a relatively young age, are to be provided with the option of lateral entry in to the Central police forces and paramilitary and in return, they would get reduced "pensionary weightage" of 50 per cent.

In order to resolve this issue, Defence Minister A K Antony had written a strong letter to both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram, particularly batting for the jawan's pensionary benefits, reduced by the CPC.

Source The Economic Times
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Revision of Conveyance Allowance.

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The revise the rates of Fixed ConveyanceAllowance admissible under SR-25 as indicated below:
...................................................... Fixed Conveyance Allowance
.................................For journeys by own car....journey by other modes
Average monthly travel
on official duty.......................... (in Rupees) .................. (in Rupees)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
201-300 Kms ..............................1120....................................... 370
301-450 Kms ............................. 1680........................................ 480
451-600 Kms ..............................2070........................................640
601-800 kms ..............................2430 .......................................750
Above 800Kms.........................3000......................................... 850

2. - These rates shall automatically increase by 25% whenever the DearnessAllowance payable on the revised pay structure goes up by 50%.
3. These orders will be effective from 1" September 2008.

Recommendations relating to LTC.

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Consequent upon the acceptance of the recommendations of Sixth Central PayCommission, it has been decided to make necessary additions/changes in the CCS(LTC)Rules, 1988 as indicated below:-

The parents and lor step parents (stepmother and stepfather)who are wholly dependenton the Government employees shall be included in the definition of family for the purpose ofLTC, irrespective of whether they are residing with the Government employee or not.
The definition of dependency will be linked to the minimum family pensionprescribed in Central Government and dearness relief thereon. The extant conditions inrespect of other relations included in the family including married/divorced/abandoned/separated/widowed daughters shall continue without anychange.

Fresh recruits to Central Government may be are allowed to travel to their home townalong with their families on three occasions in a block of four years and to any place in Indiaon the fourth occasion. This facility shall be available to the Government officers only forthe first two blocks of four years applicable after joining the Government for the first time.The blocks of 4 years shall apply with reference to the initial date of joining the Governmenteven though the employee changes the job within Government subsequently. The existingblocks will remain the same but the entitlements of the new recruit will be different in thefirst eight years of service. All other provisions concerning frequency of travel under LTCare retained.

Travel entitlements, for the purpose of official tour/transfer or LTC, will be the samebut no daily allowance shall be admissible for travel on LTC. Further, the facility shall beadmissible only in respect of journeys performed in vehicles operated by the Government orany Corporation in the public sector run by the Central or State Government or a local body.Air Journey by Private Airlines will however, continue to be admissible as per Ministry ofFinance O.M. No. 19024/1/E-IV/2005 dated the 24th March, 2006 and in terms of the ordersof DOPT in this regard ..
Government officers are allowed to encash ten days earned leave at the time ofavailing of LTC to the extent of sixty days during the entire career. The leave encashed atthe time of LTC will not be deducted from the maximum amount of earned leave encashableat the time of retirement. It is further clarified that where both husband and wife areGovernment servants, the present entitlement for availing LTC shall remain unchanged, andencashment of leave equal to 10 days at the time of availing of LTC will continue to beavailable to both, subject to a maximum of sixty days each during the career.

3. The LTC claim pertaining to the period prior to 318t August, 2008 shall be regulatedas per rules applicable on the date of journey and LTC claims already settled will not be re-opened.

ASSAM : Pay hike to State govt staff likely before polls.

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Assam Government is likely to announce a new pay package for its employees ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. According to sources, the State Pay Commission that was to submit its report by December 31 has been asked by the State Government to expedite the submission of the report.

“The idea is to ensure that we announce the revised pay package ahead of the polls,” said a top State Government official.Meanwhile, Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi parried questions about the revising the pay package of his employees.

He said Assam Government was among the first States to announce a pay hike. “We have already announced merger of 50 per cent D.A with Basic, besides providing 10 per cent interim relief,” he added.Financially because of our economic growth, we are in a much better position,” he said, adding that more funds were now available for planning and development.

Meanwhile, Assam Government is unlikely to invite the Tatas to shift its Nano project because of the land crunch. Replying to question, Gogoi said that he has only 2000 acres of available land. “We want to use this land for the knowledge city,” he said.“We have requested Tatas to invest in the education sector in Assam because through education, we can create jobs,’ he said.

Replying to questions, he clarified that unless the State had lands, he could offer it to the Tatas. “How can I acquire the land,” he asked.

Source: The Assam Tribune
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Income Tax on Pay Arrears.

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Along with the bonanza of receiving the pay arrears following the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission, there is also a worry among the employees who are going to receive this pay money as pay arrears. The worry is How much Income tax is payable on the pay arrears?.

There have been some news items on television as well as in the newspapers that most of the pay arrears will go towards payment of income tax once the employees receive the arrears.

However, the government recently, has clarified its stand on the taxation of the pay arrears for the current financial year.Income tax on Pay arrears Sixth CommissionGovernment
representative said that they would tax only 40 per cent of salary arrears to be paid to central government employees in the current fiscal on implementation of Sixth Pay Commission recommendations.

Usually, the income earned in a year is taxed in that particular year, hence whatever the employees receive in this financial year woul be taxed this year. A lot of media sources reported that the entire amount of arrears would attract tax this fiscal.As per the notification issued by the government last month, central government employees will get 40 per cent of arrears during the current financial year and the remaining amount in the next financial year.

Government instructions issued on August 30, 2008, regarding fixation of pay and payment arrears consequent to implementation of the Sixth Central Pay Commission recommendations clearly states that in authorising the arrears income tax as due may also be deducted and credited to the government.

The arrears with effect from January 2006 would cost Rs 29,373 crore. Of the arrears, 40 per cent would be paid during the current year to the 50 lakh employees of the central government.The revised pay scales will add Rs 4,500-5,500 crore to the government exchequer this fiscal in the form of personal income tax.Besides, some money would also come through indirect taxes as some of the increased pay would go into buying products and services, official sources said here.
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Sixth Pay Commission: Perks, Arrears, Increments & Key Points.

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After the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission, here is the brief list of Perks, Arrears, Increments & Key Points of the Sixth Pay Commission, as listed in the official report of the Sixth Pay Commission. How much of these perks, arrears and Increments are you elgible to receive depends upon your Pay Band and the salary. You may also check the Online Calculators for Sixth Pay Commission Salary Calculations.

Following are some key points after notification.Government has accepted most of the points but has rejected three recommendations and has put some other contentious issues to be taken up in future.Pay Band and Grade pay:

* Grade Pay up to PB2 recommended by 6CPC accepted as such.

* Revised Grade pay from PB3 and above. Check New pay band and Grade Pay

* The basic pay drawn as on 1.1.2006 on the existing Fifth CPC pay scales will be multiplied by a factor of 1.86 and then rounded off to next multiple of 10. This will be the pay in the revised running Pay Band. Grade Pay, as approved by the Government, corresponding to the pre-revised pay scale, will then be added to the Pay in the revised Pay Band. The total of pay in the Pay Band and grade pay will be the revised Basic Pay as on 1.1.2006.

* Rate of annual increments will be 3% and the rate of variable increment for high achievers in PB-3 will be 4%.

* There will be a uniform date of annual increment, viz. 1st July of every year. Employees completing 6 months and above in the revised pay structure as on 1st of July will be eligible to be granted the increment. The first increment after fixation of pay on 1.1.2006 in the revised pay structure will be granted on 1.7.2006 for those employees for whom the date of next increment was between 1st July, 2006 to 1st Jan 2007.DA and other Allowances

* AICPI (IW) with base 2001 may, henceforth, be used for the purpose of calculating DA till it gets revised. The base using the 2001 series works out to be 115.76. Based on this index the revised DA as on Jan-06, July-06, Jan-07, July-07, Jan-08 and July-08 are estimated to be 0%, 3%, 6%, 9%, 12%, and 16% respectively (based on the calculation made as per index - Exact DA rates are yet to be confirmed by the Government).

* “Campus” restriction for grant of Transport Allowance will be removed. Consequently, employees living in campuses will also be eligible for Transport Allowance. Further, Transport Allowance for the employees at the lowest levels will be increased to Rs.600 (from Rs.400) in A-1/A class cities and Rs.400 (from Rs.300) in other towns.

* New TA - Employees drawing grade pay of Rs. 5400 and above will be eligible to receive TA of Rs.3200 and DA thereon (A1/A class cites) and Rs.1600 and DA thereon (other places. Similarly Employees drawing grade pay of Rs.4200 to Rs.4800 will be eligible to receive TA of Rs. Rs.1600 and DA thereon (A1/A class cites) and Rs.800 and DA thereon (other places).

Employees drawing grade pay of below Rs. 4200 will be eligible to receive TA of Rs. 600 and DA thereon (A1/A class cites) and Rs.400 and DA thereon (other places).

* City Compensatory Allowance abolished.

* Employess living in X (Earlier classified as A-1), Y (Earlier classified as A, B-1 & B-2), and Z (Earlier classified as C and Unclassified) will be eligible for HRA of 30%, 20% and 10% (on Fixed Pay and Grade Pay) respectively.

* Children Education Allowance and Reimbursement of Tuition Fee are merged and reimbursement of Children Education allowance will be paid upto the maximum of Rs.1000 per child per month subject to a maximum of 2 children. Hostel subsidy will be reimbursed upto the maximum limit of Rs.3000 per month per child. The limits would be automatically raised by 25% every time the Dearness Allowance on the revised pay bands goes up by 50%.

* Cycle Allowance, Washing Allowance, Cash Handling Allowance, Special Allowance, Night Duty Allowance and Split Duty Allowance have been doubled. Similarly, rates of allowances specific to different Ministries/Departments/Organisations not covered in this Report will also be doubled. The rates of these allowances will be increased by 25% every time the Dearness Allowance payable on revised pay scales goes up by 50%.

* All provisions concerning travel under LTC are to be retained except frequency of travel in home town concession (up to three times during the first two blocks of 4 years after joining the service).

* The revised allowances, other than dearness allowance, will be effective from 1st day of September, 2008.ACP (Assured Career Progression):

* Three upgradations will be granted under Assured Career Progression (ACP) Scheme at 10, 20 and 30 years as per the modified ACP Scheme recommended by the Commission. ACP Scheme will also be applicable to Group A employees.

* Financial upgradation through ACP will be available whenever a person has spent 10 years continuously in the same grade.

* Benefit of pay fixation available at the time of normal promotion shall be allowed at the time of financial upgradations under the scheme. Thus, an increase of 3% of pay and grade pay shall be available as financial upgradation under the scheme.Other Points accepted by the Government:

* The Commission’s recommendation regarding payment of arrears has been modified to the extent that the arrears will be paid in cash in two instalments – first instalment of 40% during the current financial year (2008-09) and the remaining 60% in the next financial year (2009-10).

* The Government has approved setting up of Anomalies Committees to examine individual, post-specific and cadre-specific anomalies. The Anomalies Committees should endeavour to complete their work in one year.Recommendations not accepted by the Government in Sixth Pay Commission:

* Liberal ‘severance package’ for those employees who want to leave service without pension with more than 15, but less than 20 years of service.

* Recommendation relating to Holiday Policy that there should only be three closed holidays for Government employees.

* Flexi-hours for women employees and flexi-weeks for employees with disabilities.Recommendations of Sixth CPC which will be examined separately :

* Recommendation related to Bonus and Over Time Allowance.

* Recommendation related to General Provident Fund for Central Government employees and Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme.

* Introduction of Health Insurance Scheme for Central Government employees and pensioners.
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Antony: Remove pay anomalies for Armed forces.

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Defence Minister A. K. Antony has written to Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram seeking early resolution of the anomalies affecting the armed forces in the Sixth Pay Commission report.

Mr. Antony took up cudgels on behalf of the armed forces after the issue did not figure in two Cabinet meetings despite service chiefs indicating their disinclination to implement the recommendations till the anomalies were corrected.

Four issues highlighted


In his letter to Mr. Chidambaram, Mr. Antony has highlighted four issues that have caused concern in the armed forces. The failure of a high-level committee to resolve them led to the three service chiefs sending a joint representation to the government. The Chairman of the Chief of Staff Committee and Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Sureesh Mehta, also wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pointing out the anomalies.

Mr. Antony has touched upon the incorrect fixing of grade pay of officers up to the rank of Brigadier (and equivalent in the other two services), lower pay band for Lieutenant Colonels as compared to their civilian counterparts, reinstating pensionary weightage for personnel below officer rank and same status to Lt. Generals who are not commanders.

A Lt. Col. was equal in pay to NFSG (non functional selection grade) Director of the IAS and a commandant of the paramilitary forces.

All the three had an annual increment of Rs. 400. But now, the IAS director will get over Rs. 11,000 more per month than the Lt. Col and a commandant nearly Rs. 10,000 more.

Even if the military pay of Rs. 6,000 is added, the paramilitary forces, the IAS and the IPS would draw a higher salary.

Service officers said they were not asking for more pay than others but at least equal to them.

This has had two major ill-effects. First, civilian officers working under Lt. Col.s (such as superintending engineers or commandants in paramilitary services) would become senior requiring an organisational overhaul. Second, paramilitary and central police organisations would become for the youth.

Mr. Antony has also sought retention of the existing 70 per cent pensionary weightage for personnel below the officer rank (PBOR) when seeking lateral entry for the retired men in the paramilitary and the Central police forces or re-employment.

Lateral entry


The Sixth Pay Commission proposes lateral entry for PBORs into the paramilitary and Central police forces but they would forego 50 per cent of their pension. As the government is yet to approve the proposal for lateral entry, which has led to a situation where the PBORs lose out both on re-employment and pension fronts.

Mr. Antony has also sought removal of grade pay disparities for the ranks of captains to colonels as compared to civilian counterparts and creating of a new pay band of Higher Administrative Grade (HAG) plus for all Lt. Generals (and their equivalents) as has been done for all the Director General level officers of civil services and the paramilitary forces.
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Goa Cabinet to decide on pay hike on September 23.

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The state government is likely to implement the 6th Pay Commission's recommendations with effect from November 2008. The state cabinet will formally decide on the issue when it meets on September 23.

The finance secretary Udipta Ray, along with joint secretary Suresh Shanbogue gave a presentation to the cabinet about the implications of the 6th Pay Commission for Goa on Thursday.

Sources in the finance department said that the 46,000 strong government workforce will get hiked salaries from the month of November, which will be paid on November 30. The average jump in salary for any government servant ranges from 30 to 35 per cent. This includes house rent allowance (HRA) which has gone up by around 15 to 20%. The city compensatory allowance (CCA) has been abolished and travelling allowance (TA) put in its place. As the dearness allowance increases , so does the travelling allowance, sources said. The annual increment will be 3% of basic pay, and the date of increments is uniformly set for July 1 every year to all employees. Full pension will be given after completion of 20 years, that is, 50% of last 10 months average emoluments, sources said.

Implementing the 6th Pay Commission recommendations will entail an additional burden of around Rs 25 crore per month on the government . The overall liability on the government in terms of salaries and arrears for the period from January 1, 2006, to August 31, 2008, is around Rs 800 crore.

While these are some of the salient features of the 6th Pay Commission recommendations to be implemented in Goa, government employees are eagerly waiting for the cabinet to give its formal nod to the recommendations during its meeting on September 2.
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Clarification issued by Govt on Increment and promotions after 1-1-2006

Clarification 1: The date of next increment

(i) As per Rule 10 of CCS (RP) Rules, 2008 there will be one uniform date of annual increment, viz. 1St July of every year. Government servants completing 6 months and above in the revised pay structure as on 1St of July will be eligible to be granted the increment. Accordingly, all Government servants who earned their last increment between 02.01.2005 and 01.01.2006 would get their next increment on 01.07.2006.

(ii) For those employees whose date of next increment falls on 01.01.2006, the instructions already provide for granting an increment in the pre-revised pay scale as on 01.01.2006 and then fixing their pay in the revised pay scales. Such Government servants would also get their next increment on 01.07.2006.

Clarification 2: The method of fixation of pay on promotion after 01.01.2006 On promotion from one grade to another/ financial upgradation under ACP, a Government servant has an option under FR 22(I)(a)(1) to get his pay fixed in the higher post either from the date of his promotion, or from date of his next increment, viz. 1st July of the year.

The pay will be fixed in the following manner in the revised pay structure:-

a) In case the Government servant opts to get his pay fixed from his date of next increment, then, on the date of promotion, pay in the pay band shall continue unchanged, but the grade pay of the higher post will be granted. Further re-fixation will be done on the date of his next increment i.e. 1St July. On that day, he will be granted two increments; one annual increment and the second on account of promotion. While computing these two increments, basic pay prior to the date of promotion shall be taken into account. To illustrate, if the basic pay prior to the date of promotion was Rs.100, first increment would be computed on Rs.100 and the second on Rs.103.

b) In case the Government servant opts to get his pay fixed in the higher grade from the date of his promotion, he shall get his first increment in the higher grade on the next 1St July if he was promoted between 2nd July and 1st January. However, if he was promoted between 2nd January and 30th June of a particular year, he shall get his increment on 1St July of next year.Clarification 3: Use of fitment tables for cases of pay fixation under Rule 11 of CCS (RP) Rules, 2008 Rule 11 of CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2008 provides for fixation of pay in the revised pay structure subsequent to the 1st day of January, 2006. When the pay of a Government servant will be fixed as per Rule 11 on a date subsequent to 01.01.2006, the fitment tables annexed with this Department's O.M. of even number dated 30.08.2008 will be used as prescribed in the relevant provisions contained in para 2 of the O.M. The pre-revised pay to be reckoned in such cases will be the pay of the Government servant on the day of such fixation.

Clarification 4: Fixation of pay of government servants who were on deputation and got promoted in the cadre subsequently while still on deputation

(i) In case the Government servant was on deputation on 1.1.06 and got promoted to a higher post in his cadre after 1.1.06, but was not granted proforma promotion under the 'Next Below Rule', his pay will get fixed w.e.f. 1.1.06 in the grade which he was holding on 1.1.06.

(ii) In case the Government servant had been granted proforma promotion under the 'Next Below Rule', his pay will be fixed using the provisions of the 'Next Below Rule' as explained in below

(iii) In the revised pay structure , the pay of a government servant would be regulated in the following manner on grant of proforma promotion to him under 'Next Below Rule':

(a) In case a Government servant on deputation to a post gets promoted in his cadre to a post in a higher grade, his pay in the pay band will be fixed with reference to the pay in the pay band of the employee immediately junior to him in the cadre of his service. However , the government servant in question would continue to draw the grade pay attached to the deputation post for the remaining duration of the deputation.

(b) In case a Government servant on deputation to a post in PB-4 gets promoted in his cadre to a post in HAG+, his basic pay will be fixed with reference to the basic pay of the employee immediately junior to him in the cadre of his service , but the total of pay in the pay band and grade pay of the deputation post will not exceed Rs.79,000.

(c) In case a Government servant on deputation to a post in PB-4 gets promoted in his cadre to a post in the apex scale, his basic pay will be fixed with reference to the basic pay of the employee immediately junior to him in the cadre of his service, but the total of pay in the pay band and grade pay of the deputation post will not exceed Rs.79,000.

(d) In case a Government servant on deputation to a post in HAG+ gets promoted in his cadre to a post in the apex scale, his basic pay will be fixed with reference to the basic pay of the employee immediately junior to him in the cadre of his service.Clarification

5: Fixation of pay of government servants who go on deputation to a lower post

(i) In case a Government servant goes on deputation to a post carrying a lower grade pay, his pay in the pay band would continue unchanged, but he will be granted the grade pay of the lower post for the entire duration of the deputation.

(ii) In case a Government servant in HAG+ scale goes on deputation to a lower post in PB-4 , his basic pay in the deputation post will be fixed at a stage equal to his basic pay in the cadre of his service , but the total of pay in the pay band and grade pay of the deputation post will not exceed Rs.79,000.

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6th pay gains: Cut taxes to benefit staff.

Government employees are upbeat over the Sixth Pay Commission report, little realizing that more than them it is the Government which is the main beneficiary. Of the Rs 16,000-crore benefit that the panel is supposed to give over Rs 5,300 crore would go back to the Government by way of income-tax at 33 per cent alone. In fact, some employees would now be subjected to an additional tax as their salaries would touch the Rs 10-lakh per annum mark.

In its latest report, the Reserve Bank of India has come up with the desired suggestion of reducing the income-tax rate and raising exemption limits, for increasing the disposable income and ease inflationary pressure. The high inflation rate, around 13 per cent on wholesale price index (more on the basis of consumer price index) has already eroded substantial part of the pay panel benefit. The taxes would eat up the rest.

It is well-known that wage revision is undertaken primarily to neutralise the effect of price rise. One, it is dearness allowance component which takes care of it marginally. Two, it keeps the market going at an even pace. For with higher wages one is expected to increase purchases and help other sectors of the market.

It is no secret that the market is highly depressed owing to high inflationary pressure. Industrial growth too has slid. "There are also some downside risks to the industrial growth momentum during 2008-09", admits the RBI. Growth in other sectors too has fallen including infrastructure, power and the core sector. Thus raising, what RBI says are "apprehensions regarding sustainability of industrial and manufacturing growth".

Clearly, the central bank is concerned that inflation has eroded the disposable income of the middle-class, supposedly the "engine" for overall growth. It has, in no uncertain terms, expressed concern that the Government has not taken any step to rectify this and is circumspect on the benefit to the market of the so-called 'higher wages' of Central Government employees. Moreover, the RBI is wary that as the salaried class is in a tight spot, it may default on repayment of EMIs and pose a risk to the banking system.

In the face of the above, the RBI has thus vociferously suggested "adjustment" - the bank's euphemism for reduction - in the income tax and excise duty for increasing the disposable income of the middle-class. "It may have a possible impact on consumption demand for industrial goods," is the RBI's guess.

In all fairness, higher salaries were expected to surge other economic activities. But with the government policy eating into the kitty itself, that opportunity is lost. Therefore, it is time the Government has a re-look at its tax policy. The taxes, be it corporate or personal income-tax, remain at a very high level. Over the years, big time industrialists--Rahul Bajaj, Arun Bharat Ram or Sanjiv Goenka, Nusli Wadia, or Ajay Piramal--have expressed concern over the high tax regime. There is unanimity that high taxes only lead to avoidance and evasion. And yet our Government has unfortunately not tied up the taxes with its liberalisation policy.

Moreover, often taxes are unproductive and unimaginative. The answer lies in lowering the taxes and abolishing the personal income tax, which unfortunately has come to be known as the "impoverishing tax". The Kelkar committee had estimated that 48 per cent of the direct tax collected goes into tax administration! It is certainly one of the most expensive systems of realisation of resources. Any corporate would simply go bust at this kind of a cost.

Let's study the scenario. Today, there are more I-T commissioners and naturally the administration costs have gone up. In addition, the income-tax department has started spending on decorative and unrelated activities. As such, the Government not only needs to review the size of the department but also prune it. This apart, extra staff in a department means not so clean operations, as some instances have shown.

Many a times the large official force ends up causing harassment to the public simply because it is under pressure to justify its existence. This again adds up to the cost. Then there are the subsequent litigation and appeal processes, which too are a burden on the economy, other than causing loss to productive man hours. The cumbersome I-T rules only make the process more difficult. A Mahabharata of rules are eventually added every yea and each has several interpretations.

In the past, the Government has had the experience of overall higher tax accrual following tax rates being moderated from 97 per cent to 33 per cent. This meant an erosion of over one-third income in direct tax. And, there are umpteen cases of indirect taxes, which rob an average Indian of almost another 40 per cent of his/her income.

Thus, it is crystal clear: tax rates need to be cut. Finance Minister P Chidambaram must examine the pros and cons of a high tax regime carefully, so that all the money that is being generated is gainfully utilized and not burnt up. The Government should, in fact bring it down to the level of five per cent for an income up to Rs 5 lakh a year and beyond that to a maximum level of 10 per cent. Even the corporate incomes should not be taxed at more than 15 per cent.
Let's face the fact that if the taxes were low, people would voluntarily prefer to pay rather than avoid these. At the same time, the Government's coffers would get bulkier as more and more people would be integrated with the system. As of now most taxpayers are out of it and the taxmen are well aware.

What is being suggested is no revolutionary step. It only makes the tax system more imaginative, less exploitative and interwoven with market realities. At the end, an affordable tax regime would reduce the cost of tax policing, boost the market and bury inflation.
Shivaji Sarkar, -INFA
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