The number of officers and employees strength in Central government’s Ministries and Ministries is estimated to drop by around 48,000 or little over 1 per cent as on March 1, 2025. However, this reduction on total expenditure on pay and allowance including travel ones which is estimated to grow by around 10 per cent during fiscal year 2024-25.
Data under the head ‘Strength of Establishment’ in the Union Budget document show that actual number was over 31.6 lakh as on March 1, 2023, which is estimated to rise to over 35.6 lakh as on March 1, 2024, showing a growth of around 12.45 per cent. However, this number is estimated to come down to around 35.1 lakh which means decline of over 1.3 per cent.
Rlys factor
The Railways, the biggest employer of the country, appears to be reason behind fall in the estimate. Strength in the Railways is estimated at around 12.9 lakh as on March 1, 2024 which is expected to go down to 12.17 lakh as on March 1, 2025. The Budget documents do not give reason for fall in the estimated strength.
Meanwhile, despite fall in overall strength, allocation for pay and allowances (including travel) for Central Government officers and employees is not going to come down. Actual for fiscal year 2022-23 was over ₹2.76 lakh crore, while revised estimate for fiscal year 2023-24 was over ₹2.97 lakh crore, a growth of over 7.7 per cent. For current fiscal, allocation under this head is over ₹3.25 lakh crore showing a growth of 9.5 per cent. One of the reasons for rise could be higher allocation under dearness allowance for the officers and employees which is now over 50 per cent. Also, there is possible two round of DA revision in this fiscal.
Latest number of sanctioned strength and vacancies in the Central government is not known, but last Annual Report on ‘Pay & Allowances’ prepared by the Department of Expenditure of the Finance Ministry showed that the number of sanctioned posts and persons in position in the Central government, including Union Territories, has come down as on March 1, 2022.
Over 9 lakh posts vacant
According to the report, as on date under consideration, over 9.64 lakh posts were vacant. The total sanctioned strength of Central government civilian regular employees (excluding Union Territories) was at 39.77 lakh as on March 1, 2022, as against 40.35 lakh as on March 1, 2021, because of lowering posts in Group C.
At the same time, the number of persons in position came down to 30.13 lakh from 30.56 lakh. The number of sanctioned posts is the lowest in three years and that for persons in position is the lowest after 2010. Considering both the parameters — sanctioned strength and persons in position — are down, the number of vacant persons is also lower.