Hyderabad: The Pay Revision Commission (PRC), headed by former bureaucrat C.R. Biswal, has suggested a fitment of 7.5 per cent on the basic pay. It also called for increasing the superannuation age of employees from 58 years to 60, which is a key promise made by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao during the last Assembly elections.
The committee recommended pegging the minimum pay at Rs 19,000 and Rs 1,62,700 at the top end of the ladder. The new scale was evolved by merging the dearness allowance with basic pay as on July 1, 2018.
Among other changes, the committee has reduced house rent allowance (HRA) from 30 per cent to 24 in Hyderabad and to 11 per cent in villages besides other slabs from 17 to 13 per cent. It recommended retaining additional HRA in lieu of rent-free accommodation at 8 per cent of basic pay, but the monthly monetary ceiling has been increased to Rs 2,500 from Rs 2,000.
The PRC has sought continuation of the existing practice followed by the Centre of sanctioning DA twice a year. The commission proposed a conversion factor of 00910 for sanction of DA from 1.1.2019.
It recommended encouraging employees to go in for house loans from commercial banks with the government suitably subsidising interest rates. Pending such an arrangement, increase in the quantum of various loans and advances has been recommended.
The committee suggested that the Child Care Leave (CCL) be enhanced from 90 days to 120 days in case of normal children and from 90 days to two years in case of disabled children on par with Central norms. This leave is granted with 100 per cent of salary for the first 365 days and 80 per cent of the salary for the next 365 days.
The leave will be extended to single-male parents who may include unmarried or widower or divorced employees. Special Disability Leave is substituted by a new leave called "Work Related Illness and Injury Leave (WRILL)" and special disability leave for accidental injury and hospital leave are merged in WRILL.
It has recommended streamlining cashless treatment under EHS by collecting one per cent basic pay from employees and one per cent of basic pension from pensioners and creating a 'separate reserve' as in the case of Arogya Bhadratha.
The expenditure shall be met from the above reserve initially and the same shall be recouped from government reimbursement, after scrutiny of bills as per the existing rules.
The minimum monthly pension/family pension shall be fixed at Rs 9,700, which is 50 per cent of the minimum pay in the revised master pay scale. Full pension is recommended to state government employees retiring after 20 years of service.
However, the existing provision of service weightage of five years with regard to government employees retiring in less than 20 years of service will continue. If a government servant dies while in service, the enhanced family pension shall be payable for a maximum period of either 10 years from the day next to the date of death of the employee/ pensioner or till the time employee / pensioner would have attained the age of 65 years had the individual been alive, whichever is earlier.
The mentally retarded/ physically challenged son/ daughter of an employee are recommended to be paid family pension for their life-time even after their marriage. To provide relief to pensioners, who retired a long time ago, an additional quantum of pension at 15 per cent of basic pension has been recommended from the age of 75 years onwards and proposed up to 100 per cent of basic pension to the pensioners aged 100 years or above.
The maximum amount of gratuity payable at the time of retirement recommended to be increased from Rs 12 lakh to Rs 16 lakh. Relief amount on the death of service pensioner/family pensioner is recommended to increase from Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000.
Financial assistance is recommended to be increased to the level of minimum service pension, increased family pension with no dearness relief after 1.7.2018. Restoration of the commuted portion of pension after 15 years to be continued, till such time as the commutation table is revised by the Union Government.
The PRC recommended increasing the employer's share to 14 per cent of basic pay+DA in place of 10 per cent on the lines of the Centre. Invalidation pension/family pension to be extended to the employees of state government covered under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and their family members. Death Relief (obsequies charges) is extended to retired CPS employees also on par with the pensioners/family pensioners under the old pension scheme.
The existing human resources of all departments in tune with the contemporary requirements including contract/ outsourcing personnel was reviewed. It is recommended to sanction annual increase of Rs 1,000 to contract/outsourcing personnel.
The terms of reference mandate the PRC to make recommendations on the revision of pay and allowances of employees of state government, local bodies, aided institutions, non-teaching staff of universities and pensioners taking into account the overall financial position of the state government.
The committee stated that if the state government implements the suggestions and recommendations, the additional burden on it would be around Rs 2,250 crore.
