Maharashtra govt to implement Seventh Pay Commission from Jan 1

The Maharashtra Government will implement the Seventh Pay Commission from January 1, 2019, for which the state treasury will have to bear an additional burden of Rs 40,000 crore. Minister of State for Finance Deepak Kesarkar made this announcement in the Legislative Council. He was replying a question by MLC Kapil Patil during Question Hour.

State government and semi-government employees and teachers had gone on a strike over the issue on August 9. Kesarkar said the government had appointed a committee headed by retired bureaucrat K P Bakshi over this issue. "However, the government will not wait for the report and the implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission will commence from January 2019," the minister said.

He told reporters later that it will put an additional the burden of Rs 40,000 crore on the government treasury. Besides, arrears of Rs 10,000 crore would be paid retrospectively from 2016 over a five-week period, while the dearness allowance would be paid retrospectively for the last 14 months, he said. The decision will benefit close to 20 lakh state government employees, he said.

(With inputs from agencies.)