Karnataka 6th Pay Commission recommends 30% hike in salary, move to benefit 5.2 lakh employees

Bengaluru: In a bonanza, the Karnataka 6th Pay Commission has recommended 30 percent hike in the salaries of state government employees and pensioners, effective 1 July 2017. The move will benefit 5.2 lakh government employees, 5.73 lakh pensioners and also about 73,000 employees of government-aided educational institutions, local bodies and non-teaching staff of colleges and universities of the state. [caption id=“attachment_4329507” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Siddaramaiah. Getty images[/caption] The pay commission has recommended that the revision of pay and pension is to be notionally effected from 1 July 2017 with the resulting financial benefit being paid from 1 April 2018. If implemented, the revision of pay, allowances and pension is set to cost the state exchequer an estimated Rs 10,508 crore annually, the commission said. The commission headed by retired IAS officer MR Srinivas Murthy submitted the first volume of report to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday. The minimum pay as per the revised pay scales will be Rs 17,000 and the maximum pay Rs 1,50,600 plus allowances. After revision, the minimum revised pension will be Rs 8,500 with the maximum pension fixed at Rs 75,300 per month plus dearness allowance. Family pension will have an upper limit of Rs 45,180 per month with dearness allowance. The pay commission said the method it proposed to effect the revision of salaries and pension was increasing the basic pay of each employee as on 1 July 2017 by 30% and then adding the dearness allowance of 45.25 percent payable from that date. While the pay commission agreed to retain the maximum age for retiring at 60 years, it, however, recommended that the minimum qualifying service for voluntary retirement be reduced from the present 15 years to 10 years and the eligibility for receiving full pension be reduced from 33 years to 30. The maximum limit of death-cum-retirement gratuity is proposed to be increased to Rs20 lakh from the present Rs10 lakh. The commission has also recommended payment of additional pension to all pensioners aged above 80 years. It has also recommended medical reimbursement benefit to retired employees and cashless treatment for family pensioners in empanelled hospitals as in the case of ‘Jyothi Sanjeevini’ scheme. These benefits will cost the state government Rs500 crore. Substantial increase in various allowances and subsidies in vehicles for the differently-abled employees have also been recommended. These recommendations will not be applicable to All India Services and judicial officers drawing NJPC pay scale and teaching staff getting UGC/AICTE pay scales. On the occasion, Siddaramaiah said the second volume of the recommendations will be submitted three months later. “We have three months to think of the second volume of the report. We will come back to power after three months and it is only we who will implement the second set of recommendations,” Siddaramaiah said. He conceded the recommendation will have an additional burden on the state government, which will be discussed at the next cabinet meeting.