Cabinet approves Seventh Pay Commission recommendations

New Delhi: The union cabinet on Wednesday approved the Seventh Pay Commission Report's recommendations hiking salaries of central government employees as well as pensions, official sources said.

The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The recommendations will impact the some 47 lakh employees in the central government and 52 lakh pensioners.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will announce the details in the evening.

The Commission has reportedly recommended a minimum pay of Rs 18,000 per month, with the upper ceiling at Rs 225,000 a month.

The recommendation for the Cabinet Secretary and others at the same pay level is Rs 250,000 a month.

The government had set up an Empowered Committee of Secretaries under Cabinet Secretary P.K. Sinha in January to look into the Pay Commission recommendations.

The date of implementation for the recommendations is January 1, 2016.

The total financial impact of implementing the recommendations in the 2016-17 fiscal is likely to be Rs 102,100 crore as per official estimates.

Of this, increase in pay will account for Rs 39,100 crore, increase in allowances will take up another Rs 29,300 crore while pensions will entail an expenditure of Rs 33,700 crore.