Sixth Pay Commission: Defence Ministry releases its resolution

Sixth Pay Commission: Defence Ministry releases its resolution

New Delhi, Sept 1, 2008: Several questions have been raised about Sixth Pay Commission and anomalies regarding defence force personnel. In the meantime resolution and notification regarding the pay panel recommendation regarding the three wings of armed forces has been published.

There is a common grouse among armed forces personnel that they have not been done justice when it comes to payment and other allowances compared to civilian employees coming under central government. At times their grouses look very true and recently several senior army and air force officials have expressed their anguish and disagreement to the anomalies.

Armed forces officials are voicing their concerns regarding the lack of parity between civilian and armed force personnel. First to raise the issue was Air Marshal Chief Fali Homi.

Later the issue was raised by Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta. He voiced the disparity with Defence Minister A K Antony.

Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta met Antony on Friday evening to brief him on his recent visit to Japan and Korea where he took up the issue of "Lt Colonels and their equivalents in Navy and IAF being placed in Pay Band-3, lowering the extant of parities, while their civilian and paramilitary counterparts were raised to Pay Band-4," top Navy sources told media on Saturday.

Full Text of MINISTRY OF DEFENCE Resolution

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
***
RESOLUTION

No. 1(30)/2008/D (Pay/Services)

1. The Sixth Central Pay Commission (CPC) was set up by the Government of India by Resolution No. 5/2/2006-E III (A) dated 5th October, 2006 as amended by Resolution No. 5/2/2006-E III (A) dated 7th December, 2006 and 5/2/2006-E III (A) dated 8th August, 2007. The Commission submitted its report on 24th March, 2008. The report covered among other things, matters relating to structure of emoluments, allowances and conditions of service of Armed Forces personnel. Government have given careful consideration to the recommendations of the Commission relating to these matters in respect of Officers of the Armed Forces and have decided that the recommendations of the Commission on the matters aforementioned in respect of these categories of Defence personnel shall be accepted without any material change as a package with the modifications mentioned below :-

i) Implementation of the revised pay structure of pay bands and grade pay, as well as pension, with effect from 01.01.2006 and revised rates of allowances (except Dearness Allowance/relief) with effect from 01.09.2008;

(ii) Fitment in pay bands would be based on the multiplication factor of 1.86 instead of 1.74 recommended by Sixth Central Pay Commission;

(iii) Payment of 40% of arrears in cash in the year 2008-09 and the remaining 60% in the year 2009-10;

(iv) Increase in the rate of annual increment from 2.5% to 3%;

(v) Grant of scale of Army Commanders (Rs 80,000-fixed) on non-functional basis to those Lt. Generals who are fit for promotion as Army Commanders, but overlooked due to lack of residual service of 2 years;

(vi) In case of existing Major General/Lt. General, Military Service Pay (MSP) to be taken into account notionally for fixation of pay on 1.1.2006 with actual benefits being admissible prospectively;

(vii) Grade pay of Major General/equivalent will be Rs. 10,000 and Lt. General/equivalent Rs. 12,000.

(viii) Placement of Colonel/equivalent and Brigadier/equivalent in the revised Pay Band-4 of Rs. 37400 - 67000;

(ix) Enhanced grade pay of middle level officers (from Capt./equivalent to Brig./equivalent) as suggested by Defence Services.

(x) Removal of Campus restriction for grant of Transport Allowance;

(xi) Grade pay to determine seniority of posts only within a cadre’s hierarchy and not between various cadres;

(xii) The rates of Special Forces Allowance for Army and Air Force to be equated with Navy’s Marine Commando Allowance.

2. The recommendation of the Sixth CPC relating to lateral shift of Defence Personnel to Central Para Military Forces would be examined separately.

3. Government have not accepted the recommendations of Sixth CPC regarding following issues:-

(a) Liberal ‘severance package’ for employees who want to leave service without pension with more than 15 years but less than 20 years service

(b) There should only be three closed holidays for Government employees.
(c) Flexi-hours for women employees and flexi-weeks for employees with disabilities.

4. General principles of fixation of initial pay in the revised pay structure as on 1.1.2006, fixation of pay of employees recruited on or after 1.1.2006, rate of increment in the revised pay structure and date of increment will be as in the Government of India Notification No. GSR 622(E) dated 29th August, 2008.

5. The decisions taken by the Government accordingly on various recommendations of the Commission in respect of officers of Armed Forces are indicated in the statement at Annexure-I to this resolution. The existing pay scales of Officers of the Armed Forces are indicated in the Statement at Annexure- II.

(Ajay Tirkey)
Joint Secretary to the Government of India

ORDER
Ordered that the Resolution be Published in the Gazette of India Extraordinary.
Ordered also that a copy of the Resolution be communicated to:-
1. Army Headquarters
2. Naval Headquarters
3. Air Force Headquarters
4. Pay Commission Cells of Army, Navy and Air Force
5. Controller General of Defence Accounts and all CDAs
6. Director General of Audit, Defence Services
7. Director of Public Relations, Ministry of Defence
8. Finance Division of Ministry of Defence
9. Implementation Cell of Ministry of Finance (Department of Expenditure)
10. All other concerned

(Ajay Tirkey)
Joint Secretary to the Government of India

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