7th Pay Commission News – Details of Earlier Pay Commissions
Since India’s Independence, seven pay commissions have been set up on a regular basis to review and make recommendations on
the work and pay
structure of all civil and military divisions of the Government of India.
First Pay Commission
The first pay commission was constituted in May 1946, and had
submitted its report in a year. and the importance is on the report.
chairman was Srinivasa Varadachariar wef The first pay commission was
based upon the idea of “living wages” to the employees, this idea was
taken from the Islington Commission and the commission observed that
“the test formulated by the Islington Commission is only to be liberally
interpreted to suit the conditions of the present day and to be
qualified by the condition that in no case should be a man’s pay be less
than
a living wage.” The commission emphasised on the idea of
the living
wages and stated that the government which is going to introduce the
minimum wages legislation for the workers of the private industry should
also follow the same
principle for its own employees. The commission basically recommended that the lowest rung employee should at least get minimum wages.
Second Pay Commission
The second pay commission was set up in August 1957, 10
years after
independence and it gave its report after two years. The
recommendations of the second pay commission had a financial impact of
Rs 396 million. The chairman of the second pay commission was Jaganath
Das.The second pay commission reiterated the principle on which the salaries have to be determined. It stated that the pay structure
and the working conditions of the government employee should be crafted
in a way so as to ensure efficient functioning of the system by
recruiting persons with a minimum qualification.
Third Pay Commission
The third pay commission set up in April 1970 gave its report in
March 1973 i.e. it took almost 3 years to submit the report, and created
proposals that cost the government Rs. 1.44 billion. The chairman was
Raghubir Dayal. The third pay commission added three very important
concepts of inclusiveness, comprehensibility, and adequacy for pay structure
to be sound in nature.The third pay commission went beyond the idea of
minimum subsistence that was adopted by the first pay commission.the
commission report say that the true test which the government should
adopt is to know weather the services are attractive and it retains the
people it needs and if these persons are satisfied by that they are
getting paid.
Fourth Pay Commission
Constituted in June 1983, its report was given in three phases within
four years and the financial burden to the government was Rs.12.82
billion. This commission has been set up on dated 18.3.1987, Gazette of
India (Extra ordinary)
Notification No 91 dated 18.3.1987, The chairman of fourth pay commission was P N Singhal.
Fifth Pay Commission
The Fifth Pay Commission was set up in 1994 at a cost of Rs. 17,000
crore. The chairman of fifth pay commission was Justice S. Ratnavel
Pandian.
Financial Impact of Fifth pay commission
With the implementation of the Fifth Pay commission a huge burden was
taken up by the central government. It declared hike in salary of about
3.3 million central government employees. Further, it also insisted on
pay revision at the state government level. The Fifth pay commission
disturbed the financial situation of both the Central and the State
Governments and led to a hue and cry after its implementation. The
Central government’s wage bill before the implementation of the
commission’s recommendations was 218.85 billion in 1996-1997 which also
included pension dues and by 1999 it shoot up by about 99% and the
burden on the exchequer was about to Rs 435.68 billion in 1999-2000.With
regard’s to the state government the bill went up by 74%. The state
governments which paid about Rs 515.48 billion in 1997 as salaries, had
to pay Rs 898.13 billion in 1999 as salaries. This clearly indicates the
burden on the state and the central government. Many economists say
that about 90% of the revenue of the state went in as salaries. 13
states of India were not in a position to pay salaries to its employees
due to the hike and hence the central government’s help was sought
Other recommendations of the Fifth pay commission
One of its recommendations was to slash government work force by
about 30%. It also recommended to reduce the number of pay scale from 51
to 34 and to not recruit to about 3,50,000 vacant position in the
government. None of these recommendations were implemented.
Criticisms of World Bank on fifth pay commission
The World Bank criticized the Fifth Pay commission, stating that the
Fifth Pay Commission as the ‘single largest adverse shock’ to the public
finance of the nation. It also said that the number of employees of the
government was ‘not unduly’ large, but there was a ‘pronounced
imbalance’ in the skills. It noted that about 93% of the employees were
of 3rd or 4th grade.
Sixth Pay Commission
Main article: Sixth Central Pay Commission
In July 2006, the Cabinet approved setting up of the sixth pay
commission. This commission has been set up under Justice
B.N.Srikrishna with a timeframe of 18 months. The cost of hikes in
salaries is anticipated to be about Rs. 20,000 crore for a total of 5.5
million government employees as per media speculation on the 6th Pay
Commission, the report of which is expected to be handed over in late
March/early April 2008. The employees had threatened to go on a
nationwide strike if the government failed to hike their salaries.
Reasons for the demand of hikes include rising inflation and rising pay
in the private sector due to the forces of Globalization. The Class 1
officers in India are grossly underpaid with an IAS officer with 25
years of work experience earning just Rs.55,000 as his take home pay.
Pay arrears are due from January 2006 till September 2008. Almost all
the Government employees received 40% of the pay arrears in 2008 and
balance 60% arrears (as promised by Government) has also been credited
in Government employees account in 2009. The Sixth Pay Commission mainly
focused on removing ambiguity in respect of various
pay scales and mainly focused on reducing number of pay scales and bring the idea of
pay bands. It recommended for removal of Group-D cadre.
Seventh Pay Commission[edit]
The Government of India has initiated the process to constitute the 7th Central Pay Commission along with finalization of its
Terms of Reference,
the composition and the possible timeframe for submission of its
Report.[4] On September 25, 2013 the finance minister P Chidambaram
announced that the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has approved the
constitution of the 7th Pay Commission. Its recommendations are likely
to be implemented with effect from January 1, 2016. Justice A.K Mathur
will be heading the Seventh Pay commission, announcement of which was
done on 4th of February 2014. [5]
| Name |
Designation |
Role in Commission |
| Justice Ashok Kumar Mathur |
Retired Judge of the Supreme Court and Retired Chairman, Armed Forces Tribunal |
Chairman |
| Vivek Rae |
Secretary, Petroleum & Natural Gas |
Member (Full Time) |
| Dr. Rathin Roy |
Director, NIPFP |
Member (Part Time) |
| Meena Agarwal |
OSD, Department of Expenditure,Ministry of Finance |
Secretary |
