The Centre in January this year announced the 8th Pay Commission, which will submit its report to the central government for revision of salaries and pensions. Ever since the pay panel was announced, central government employees and pensioners have been eagerly awaiting the appointment of two committee members and the chairman. The government is expected to announce the names of panel members next month.
Since the current 7th Pay Commission is scheduled to end its term on December 31, 2025, the big question on employees’ minds is whether the government will be able to implement the new pay panel from January 2026 or not. Going by past instances, it is highly unlikely that the new pay panel’s recommendations will be implemented from January next year because previous pay panels have taken more than a year usually to finalise their reports. This time, as the announcement of the pay commission got delayed, compared to previous pay panels, chances are high that the implementation of recommendations would only be seen in the financial year 2026-27.
Meanwhile, two parliamentarians, Kangna Ranaut of the BJP and Sajda Ahmed of the Trinamool Congress, raised questions in the Lok Sabha about the 8th Pay Commission’s formation for the revision of salaries and pensions of central government employees.
Also read: 8th Pay Commission: Central employees’ commuted pension to be restored after 12 years?
One of their questions was whether the government has fixed any time frame for submission of the 8th Pay Commission report. These parliamentarians also asked about the progress made on the Terms of Reference for the pay panel.
Answering their query, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the time frame for submission of the report and the progress on Terms of Reference will be “decided in due course of time”.
One question was about the approximate number of central government employees and pensioners at the 7th CPC level likely to benefit from the 8th CPC leading to consumption boost and the economic growth across the country including Odisha.
To this, the finance minister said that the approximate number of central government civilian employees and pensioners/family pensioners is 36.57 lakh (as on 01.03.2025) and 33.91 lakh (as on 31 .12.2024), respectively. “Defence personnel and pensioners will also be benefitted”.
On the financial implication of the recommendations of the 8th Central Pay Commission, the FM said that they will be known once the recommendations are made by the 8th Central Pay Commission and accepted by the government.
The parliamentarians also asked whether the government has conducted any studies or held any consultation with employee unions, pensioners and other stakeholders to assess the impact of the 8th CPC on fiscal policies and government expenditure.
On this, the government said that inputs on Terms of Reference (ToR) have been sought from major stakeholders including Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Personnel & Training and from states. “Impact of 8th CPC can be assessed only once the recommendations are made by the 8th CPC and are accepted by the government.”