(FE)
7th Pay Commission report on revised allowances: The long wait of over 4.9 million Central government employees for updates on higher allowances, recommended by the 7th Pay Commission, may end now as the Union Cabinet is likely to take its call on it in its meeting today. The meeting will be headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to sources. It may be noted that the 7th CPC had recommended that of a total of 196 allowances, 52 be abolished altogether and 36 be abolished as separate identities by subsuming them in another allowance.
Whatever be the case, the Central government employees have been waiting for updates on higher allowances for weeks, ever since the Committee on Allowances – headed by Ashok Lavasa and constituted by the Ministry of Finance to examine the Seventh Pay Commission report recommendations on allowances – submitted its proposals in the last week of April. Following this, the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS), set up to screen the 7th CPC recommendations, was reportedly set to discuss the recommendations of the Lavasa Committee and firm up the proposal for approval of the Cabinet in the second half of May itself. However, the suspense over update continues as the Union Cabinet is yet to take a decision on this matter.
