There is no end to the discussion about the 8th Pay Commission. Most importantly, there is talk of when the new commission will be implemented and how much salaries and pensions of government employees will be increased. If you are also a government employee, then this article is for you. There will be some good news for the central government employees in the next few days. The most important of them was the formation of the 8th Pay Commission.
8th pay commission?
The controversy over when the central government will issue the notification of the 8th Pay Commission is increasing day by day. Various types of predictions are being made about this. It is also being said that an announcement for this may be made in Budget 2025.Pay committees are generally constituted once every 10 years.
The 7th Pay Commission was constituted in 2014 and came into effect in 2016. Accordingly, the 8th Pay Commission should be implemented in 2026. If the 8th Pay Commission is implemented, there will be a huge increase in the salary of central government employees and pensions of pensioners. In particular, there will be a change in the salary structure of the employees.
There is a lot of speculation about how much the fitment factor, a key determinant of basic pay, will be increased. At present, the fitment factor under the 7th Pay Commission is 2.57. Recently, Shiv Gopal Mishra, secretary of the National Joint Consultative Organization (NC-JCM), has called for increasing the fitment factor. It is being said to be important due to inflation. The fitment factor is a multiplier that is used to update salaries and pensions.
Salary will be hiked?
The fitment factor in the 7th pay band was fixed at 2.57. Based on this, the minimum basic pay has been increased from Rs 7,000 to Rs 17,990. In the 8th pay panel, there is a demand to increase the fitment factor to 2.86. If the fitment factor in the 8th Pay Commission is increased to 2.68, then the minimum salary of government employees will increase to Rs 51,451.
If there is a change in the fitment factor, then the pension of pensioners will also increase significantly. If the fitment factor is fixed at 2.86, the pension will go up from the existing Rs 9,000 to Rs 25,740. Before the Union Budget was presented in July 2024, the first memorandum was submitted to the then Union Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba. The second memorandum was submitted to T.V. Somanathan, who assumed the post of Cabinet Secretary on August 30.
What about pension?
Salary and pension increases are calculated by multiplying the fitment factor with the previous minimum salary or pension amount. So if the fitment factor is changed, there is a possibility of huge salary hikes and pension increases.