Centre accepts pay panel recommendation on promotion

•  The Union government has accepted the recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission on Modified Assured Career Progression (MACP) for Central employees which would ensure one minimum promotion for every 10 years till 30 years of service.
• According to Department of Personnel there shall be three financial up gradations under the assured promotion scheme counted from the direct entry grade on completion of 10, 20 and 30 years services respectively or 10 years of continuous service in the same level in Pay Matrix, whichever is earlier.
• This scheme envisages mere placement in the immediate next higher level in the Pay Matrix. Thus in certain cases where regular promotion is not between two successive levels in the Pay Matrix, it will be different than what is available at the time of regular promotion. In such cases, the higher level in the Pay Matrix attached to the next promotion post in the hierarchy of the concerned cadre/organisation will be given only at the time of regular promotion.
• The Modified Assured Career Progression Scheme was originally introduced in 2008 following the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission.
• On the recommendation of the Commission on enhancement of benchmark for performance appraisal for promotion and financial upgradation from ‘Good’ to ‘Very Good’, the memorandum said the government has accepted it.
• The changes are effective from July 2016 and the comprehensive MACP scheme on acceptance of the Seventh Central Pay Commission recommendations will be issued separately.

About 7th Pay Commission(Chairman: A K Mathur):

• The commission has recommended a 16 per cent hike in basic salary plus increase in DA and allowances like HRA.
• The total increase will be 23.55 percent of the gross salary (basic plus DA plus allowances).
• The minimum pay in government is recommended to be set at Rs 18,000 per month.
• Maximum pay is recommended as Rs 2,25,000 per month for Apex scale and Rs 2,50,000 per month for Cabinet Secretary and others at the same level.
• The rate of annual increment retained at 3 per cent.
• One Rank One Pension proposed for civilian government employees on line of OROP for armed forces.
• Ceiling of gratuity enhanced from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh; ceiling on gratuity to be raised by 25 per cent whenever DA rises by 50 per cent.
• Military Service Pay (MSP), which is a compensation for the various aspects of military service, will be admissible to the defence forces personnel only.
• MSP for service officers more than doubled to Rs 15,500 per month from Rs 6,000 currently; for nursing officers to Rs 10,800 from Rs 4,200; for JCO/ORs to Rs 5,200 from Rs 2,000 and for non-combatants to Rs 3,600 from Rs 1,000.
• Short service commissioned officers will be allowed to exit the armed forces at any point in time between 7 to 10 years of service.
• Commission recommends abolishing 52 allowances; another 36 allowances subsumed in existing allowances or in newly proposed allowances.
• The commission has proposed a status quo on the retirement age of Central government employees. Retirement age for staff of Central government is 60 years.
• Total impact of are expected to entail an increase of 0.65% points in the ratio of expenditure on to GDP.
• Financial impact of implementing recommendations will be Rs 1.02 lakh crore - Rs 73,650 crore to be borne by Central Budget and Rs 28,450 crore by Railway Budget.
• Recommendations will impact 47 lakh serving govt employees, 52 lakh pensioners, including defence personnel.
• The 16 per cent hike in basic salary is much lower than the 35 per cent hike employees got in the Sixth Pay Commission.
• The pay panel revisions are in force retrospectively from January 1, 2016.
• The minimum pay in central government with effect from January 1, 2016 will now be Rs 18,000 per month; at the highest level, it will be Rs 2.5 lakh.
• There shall be two dates for grant of increment - 1 January and 1 July every year - instead of the existing 1 July only. Employees will be entitled to only one annual increment on either of these two dates depending on the date of appointment, promotion or grant of financial upgradation.
• The Central government employees will not get annual increment if their performance is not up to the mark. The benchmark for performance appraisal for promotion and financial upgradation has been enhanced to "very good" from "good" level.
• The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has been authorised to take action regarding pay and related issues concerning officers of all India services--Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS)
• IAS officers at present get a two-year edge over other services for getting empanelled to come on deputation at the Centre. Besides, they also get two additional increments at the rate of 3 per cent over their basic pay at three promotion stages i.e., promotion to the Senior Time Scale (STS), to the Junior Administrative Grade (JAG) and to the Non-Functional Selection Grade (NFSG) after putting in about four, eight and 13 years of service, respectively. A confederation representing thousands of officers of 20 civil services, including the IPS, have been demanding pay parity and other benefits enjoyed by IAS officers. The anomalies committee is expected to look after these issues.

By: Vishal