The Finance Ministry on Friday said that the arrears from the revised salary following the Seventh Pay Commission will be given in one instalment.
“The arrears as accruing on account of revised pay …shall be paid in cash in one instalment along with the payment of salary for the month of August, after making necessary adjustment on account of General Provident Fund and National Pension System,” it said in a statement.
The revised pay is effective from January 1, 2016, meaning that government employees and pensioners will receive arrears for eight months. The government had, on July 25, notified the revised pay grades. The decision, which will impact 47 lakh Central government employees and 53 lakh pensioners, will have a total bearing of ₹1,02,100 crore on the exchequer this fiscal. Of this, the government is estimated to spend ₹12,000 crore for payment of arrears.
The Finance Ministry also said that to expedite the disbursement of arrears, it has been decided that claims will be paid without pre-checking the fixation of pay in the revised scales.
This will only be applicable for serving employees and will “not be available to those Government servants who have relinquished service on account of dismissal, resignation, discharge, retirement after the date of implementation of the Pay Commission’s recommendations”.
In guidelines issued on the implementation of Seventh Pay Commission recommendations, the Finance Ministry said that while authorising the arrears, Income Tax as due should also be deducted and credited to the Government.