Pay panel burdens railways with Rs 28,450 cr

The total financial impact of the implementation of the Seventh Central Pay Commission recommendation on Railway Budget 2016-17 is estimated to be Rs 28,450 cr.
The Pay Commission submitted its report recommending Rs 18,000 per month for government employee which is applicable for railways also.
It has also recommended a risk and hardship allowance of Rs 2,700 per month for track maintainers, who are known as gangmen in popular railway parlance.
There was a long-time demand for hardship allowance for gangmen who perform the most risky job of manually maintaining the track across the country.
All-India Railway Federation Secretary Shiv Gopal Mishra said, "higher grade railway staff got maximum benefit while low grade got minimum. The minimum salary of Rs 18,000 per month is too meagre and it should have been Rs 26,000."

He said employees will observe November 27 as "black day" to protest its recommendation.

Mishra, however, said the hardship allowance of Rs 2700 per month and 'one rank one pension' formula in railways are welcome steps.
The total expenditure of pay including DA but excluding allowance is likely to increase by 16 per cent in railways as per the recommendation.
As per the recommendations, the impact of 16 per cent hike on the next Railway Budget is estimated to be Rs 11,350 cr. The impact of allowance is estimated to be Rs 7,600 cr which include Rs 4,000 cr towards house rent allowance and Rs 3,600 cr on other allowance.

As per the recommendation, the pension outgo during 2016-17 will be Rs 9,500 cr.
In order to rationalise and expedite pending cadre restructuring proposals of Grade A officers, it has also recommended for examining the issue in the department itself.
The recommendations are to be implemented from January 1, 2016.