Government allots Rs 70,000 crore for 7th pay commission

For the implementation of Seventh Pay Commission for government employees, the finance ministry has allotted Rs 70,000 crore as the provision in the Union Budget 2016-17.

The budget, which was announced on the 29^th February, did not provide an explicit overall provision number, even as the government said that the 7th Pay Commission hike was built in as an interim allocation for different ministries.

The mere implementation of this pay commission would cost the government Rs 1.02 lakh crore.

"We have provisioned for around 60-70 per cent of the total burden that was talked about," a finance ministry official told PTI.

"We will wait to see the report of the Committee of Secretaries on the 7th Pay Commission and decide if we need further allocation," he said.
It was in January that the government had set up a high-powered panel headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha so that the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission can be processed. These recommendations will have bearing on the remuneration of 47 lakh central government employees and 52 lakh pensioners.

There were doubts about the government being able to meet the fiscal deficit target of 3.9% for 2016-17, because of the burden of Pay Commission recommendations.

However, in the budget session, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley cleared all doubts and promised to adhere to the fiscal consolidation roadmap and stick to 3.9% deficit target.

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