Ashok Kr Mathur to head 7th Pay Commission

The Commission has been mandated to submit its report in two years time and its recommendations would be implemented from January 1, 2016

The Centre on Tuesday picked a retired supreme court judge and retired chairman of the Armed Forces Tribunal, Ashok Kumar Mathur, to head the seventh Pay Commission, which will  recommend on revising salaries and pension of five million government employees and three million retired ones with effect from January 1, 2016.

While the Commission is not expected to come out with an interim relief as the general elections are just two-to-three months away, the government may increase and merge dearness allowance (DA) with the basic pay.

Petroleum secretary Vivek Rae and National Institute of Public Finance and Policy director Rathin Roy are members of the Commission. While Rae was appointed a full-time member, Roy is a part-time one.

Meena Agarwal, an officer on special duty in the expenditure department of the finance ministry, will serve as secretary. The Commission has been mandated to give its report in two years.

When asked whether the Commission will come out with an interim award, an official said it was not likely.

The government might announce a 10 per cent increase in DA next month to make it 100 per cent of basic pay. The government is also considering employees’ demand to merge DA with the basic pay, said the official quoted above. Another official said the exact terms of reference were yet to be finalised and approved.

The government constitutes a Pay Commission almost every 10 years to revise the pay of its employees and often, these are adopted by states after some modification. The sixth Pay Commission was implemented with effect from January 1, 2006, the fifth from January 1, 1996 and the fourth from January 1, 1986.

The seventh Commission, which was announced in September 2013, comes about three years before its recommendations will actually take effect. This could be aimed at reverting to the usual practice, snapped when the sixth pay panel was set up. The Cabinet had approved setting up of the sixth pay commission in July 2006, and its recommendations came into effect retrospectively from January 2006. That was because the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government, which was in power then, had initially refused to set up the Commission.