Andhra Pradesh has never adopted the central pay commission recommendations. In the state, pay revision takes place once in five years, against 10 years of the central pay revision.
Confirming this, a senior official said the state had given a rise of 41% (25% in 1999 and 16% in 2005) on the basic in the 10-year period, against the 40% increase recommended by the 6th Pay Commission, which is on the gross pay (as per news reports). Central government employees have already started making noises, he added.
However, the initial euphoria notwithstanding, state government employees in Andhra Pradesh, too, are not enthused by the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations, terming them as lopsided. They feel the state commission is better suited for them.
??Though the raise looks little over 40%, the fitment appears to be a bit low,?? a state employees’ union leader told FE. However, he felt that some of the benefits, like house rent allowance or education allowance, are a bit attractive and they may take this up with the state government.
It may be recalled that the state had already appointed the Rangachary Commission to remove pay anomalies. The government is expected to implement its recommendations before appointing the state pay revision commission (PRC), sources said.
Employees? union leaders, however, said they were planning to approach the government shortly with a request to appoint a PRC, which is due in July 2008. ??We do not anticipate any kind of delay in appointing the PRC, unlike on earlier occasions?? they said.
The reason for this optimism, according to the union leaders, is that state revenues have been steadily rising?over 20% annually?while expenditure on employees? salary is falling. For instance, during 2001-02, salaries constituted 36.7% of state revenue, and had declined to 27% now. The state government is financially in a better position to pay salaries to its employees on par with the corporate world, they said.