The Railway Senior Citizens Welfare Society (RSCWS) has requested Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to set up the 8th Pay Commission from January 1, 2024. It is because the rate of dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) is likely to increase above 50 per cent from January 2023, according to an FE report.
As per the recommendations of the last three Central Pay Commissions, the future pay revision should be done when the DA/DR reaches 50 per cent or more than the basic pay, the RSCWS said through a memorandum to the Ministry of Finance dated May 30, 2023, according to the FE report.
The last revision in DA was done in March raising it by 4 per cent, which became effective from January 1, 2023. After the 4 per cent hike, the DA of central government employees increased to 42 per cent. Now, if the government raises DA by 4 per cent this time also, going by the news reports, the DA will increase to 46 per cent in July. Another 4 per cent hike, if any, will raise the DA to 50 per cent of the basic pay.
“…The pay structure needs revision to neutralise the impact of inflation. The rate of DA/DR is projected to cross 50 per cent or even more from January 2024 and as such the Pay & Allowances and Pension needs to be revised from January, 2024 accordingly,” the memorandum said.
Dearness allowance (DA) is given to government employees, while dearness relief (DR) is for pensioners.
“This was a great injustice with the Central Government employees and pensioners, caused due to continuous erosion of their real income; the Dearness Allowances and Dearness Reliefs do not provide requisite relief against inflation nor do they provide the required element to keep pace with the rise in per capita income of the country,” the memorandum said.
According to the memorandum, the Pay Commissions have all along been taking about 2 years for submitting their reports and another year or more is taken by the government to consider and to implement the same. It further erodes the relative value of the Pay & Pension proposed by the Pay Commission.
“It is therefore requested that Eighth Central Pay Commission may please be set up early and an Interim relief be granted to the Central Government employees & Pensioners w.e.f. 1-1-2024, to compensate them for the erosion of their Pay and Pension due to inflation & loss on account of relativity with GDP,” the RSCWS said.
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