BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha cabinet on Tuesday gave post-facto approval to chief minister Naveen Patnaik's announcement to implement the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission from January 1, 2016.
A decision was also taken to revise the remuneration of contract employees. Pensions and family pensions will be revised from January 1, 2016.
State government employees will get their enhanced pay from September,
This will cast an additional burden of Rs 4500 crore per annum on the state exchequer.
Under the new dispensation, Odisha’s pay matrix of 17 levels will have a minimum pay of Rs 16,600 per month for Level 1 employees and the highest pay of Rs 2,25,000 per month.
More details of the pay matrix will be available in a couple of days.
Chief secretary A P Padhi told mediapersons that pay and pension are to be fixed in the revised structure by multiplying by a factor of 2.57.
The minimum pension/family pension has been fixed at Rs 8300 per month as per the revised pay structure.
Padhi said salaries will increase by 14.2 per cent. A budget provision of Rs 2250 crore has been made for payment of salary as per the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission. Payment of arrears, amounting to a staggering Rs 7500 crore, will be budgeted later on.
The chief secretary said the prevailing Revised Assured Career Progression (RACP) has been substituted by the Modified Assured Career Progression (MACP) scheme on the lines adopted by the government of India.
The existing gratuity ceiling of Rs 7.5 lakh has been enhanced to Rs 15 lakh. Dearness allowance will be included with emoluments for determination of death-cum-retirement gratuity (DCRG), Padhi said and added that earlier gratuity was calculated on the basis of basic pay.
Employees appointed on or after January 1, 2005 and governed under new pension scheme will be included under the DCRG on the same terms and conditions as applicable to the employees governed by the Odisha Civil Services Pension Rules, 1992.
The cabinet also decided to increase the monthly consolidated remuneration of contractual employees by 25 per cent at their initial appointment with a 10 per cent increase every year till their regularization as per rules.
The chief secretary said the revised remuneration will be payable with effect from January 1, 2016.
The annual increase in remuneration has been proposed to be payable after completion of one year from the date on which the employee completes one year of continuous service subject to satisfactory performance, Padhi said. He added that the increased remuneration will be paid to the contractual employees from September.
Padhi said the Cabinet also approved amendment of the Odisha Group B Posts (contractual Appointment) Rules, 2013 and the Odisha Group C and Group D Posts (Contractual appointment) Rules, 2013 in a bid to enhance the remuneration of contract employees.
While the minimum remuneration for the lowest category of contract employees will be Rs 8,070 at the time of joining, the highest initial amount is fixed at Rs 16,880.