The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday announced a net hike of over 14% in the pay for its staff. The quantum of increase has been calculated after taking into account the existing basic pay, grade pay and dearness allowance.
It would benefit nearly 12 lakh employees and teachers and about seven lakh pensioners and family pensioners, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami said in a statement, hours after chairing a meeting of the Cabinet to give formal approval for the pay increase.
As per the revised structure, the minimum pay for government staff would be ₹15,700 and the maximum ₹ 2.25 lakh. Likewise, the minimum amount of pension would be ₹7,850 for pensioners and family pensioners (given to the spouse of the deceased pensioner), while the maximum would be ₹1,12,500 and ₹67,500 respectively. The ceiling for the payment of gratuity given to the employees at the time of retirement had been enhanced from ₹10 lakh to ₹20 lakh.
In respect of noon-meal staff, the minimum would be ₹3,000 and the maximum ₹11,100. In the case of those who are on consolidated pay or contract, a minimum of 30% increase has been sanctioned.
The revised pay would come into force from October 2017 while the notional increase would take effect retrospectively from January 1, 2016.
As a result of the pay revision, the government would incur an additional burden of ₹14,719 crore in a full year and ₹7,350 crore during the current year (2017-18).
The recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission of the Central government formed the basis for the revision, and as followed by the Centre, the present pay had been increased by the factor of 2.57.
