7th Pay Commission: The biggest impediment to salary hike announcement for central staff has been the tight position of the government in terms of its revenue inflows. As long as the economy was misfiring and inflation was hurting, the chances of a salary hike announcement remained remote. But over the last few months things have improved considerably with agency after reputed agency giving the Indian economy a thumbs up in terms of growth. Starting from 2014 when the new government took over to the year 2019 when the next election is slated, the economy is on a rising trajectory that may well climax next year. Indubitably, government servants are not the only people who are making demands that the Centre must look at. The same is coming from other sources like farmers. That this group is important is clear from the fact that today a new chief minister took over in Karnataka and the first thing he did was say that he was in talks with banks for waiving loans of up to Rs 1 lakh to farmers immediately. The Centre has many claimants too that it just cannot ignore.
But the country itself is getting into the comfort zone in terms of its economy. According to Fitch, India’s economic growth will accelerate to 7.3 per cent in the current fiscal and 7.5 per cent in the next. Post demonetisation and GST decisions, the economy has recovered well and is now all set to reap the benefits. Central government employees are expected to be among those who benefit. However, it also raised a warning – of rise in the public-debt and loose macroeconomic policy settings leading to high inflation and a widening CAD.
And now that another important election is over and the ruling party at the Centre has its Chief Minister in the Karnataka state chair, it is now in a much better position to look at taking tough decisions that can make or break the economy. Yes, the outgo on 7th Pay commission salaries is already big and if Centre agrees to hike it further as per the demands of the employees, then the amount rises by mammoth proportions. With the India pie itself increasing, a much more benign environment has been created for a salary hike based on a fitment factor jump to 3.68 times and increase in minimum pay to Rs 26,000.
The question on every staff members mind is – when will the announcement be made?
