Gujarat Govt to study sixth pay commission hike

GANDHINAGAR: The Gujarat government has decided to set up a babus' committee on implications of the Centre's sixth pay commission award to hike employees' salary by 20 per cent for the state.

Talking to newspersons soon after the weekly Cabinet meeting, government spokesperson Jay Narayan Vyas said, "The secretaries' committee will submit its report to the Cabinet sub-committee , formed early this year on what the sixth pay commission may mean to Gujarat."

The announcement was based on a suggestion to the Cabinet on Wednesday that officials must first examine the sixth pay panel suggestions before putting them into effect. Vyas said, "The official committee will submit its report to the sub-committee , which in turn will get Cabinet nod before putting the sixth pay panel recommendations into gear." The minister gave no time frame, nor did he name the bureaucrat who will head the official committee. Vyas complained, the Gujarat government has still not received "full details" of the sixth pay commission, including what it means to all-India employees.

Last year, when the pay commission was still busy preparing its report , Chief Minister Narendra Modi had demanded from the Centre financial help to ward off the burden on the state exchequer.

He did this even while declaring that the state's financial situation was the best in many years, with fiscal deficit within reasonable limits . Officials apprehend that fiscal deficit, which stood at 2.16 per cent of the gross state domestic product (GSDP) last year, might rise in case the sixth pay panel is implemented.

With a whopping burden of Rs 2,000 crore per annum, most of the gain from the rise in value-added tax (VAT) and other state taxes' incomes, which comes to Rs 3,100 crore per annum . "We will not be able to pass on the gain for developmental needs in the Centre doesn't help," an official said. In all, 4.87 lakh government employees and 3.13 lakh pensioners are waiting to gain a rise of 20 per cent from the sixth pay panel.

Of these, 3.92 lakh are employees working in government departments in different parts of Gujarat, including teachers in government schools. Then, there are nearly 88,000 employees working in aided institutes and another 6,000 employees in state public sector undertakings.


Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com