8th Pay Commission: When will salary go up? How long will it take after approval?

Kolkata: The constitution of the 8th Pay Commission was approved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January this year. A long 10 months later, the terms of reference have been approved by the Union cabinet. Now the question which is the uppermost on the minds of all Central government employees, pensioners is, when will the salary and pension go up? Also when could the recommendations come and how long it might take for the implementation of the same. However, the point to note is that the government is not obliged to accept the recommendations, though it usually does so.

The 8th Pay Commission will be headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjan Prasad Desai. It has been asked to submit its recommendations within a period of 18 months, which means by April 2027. In the meantime the commission and its office bearers will hold detailed discussions with experts and stakeholders to arrive at a decision. At stake at the salary and pension of nothing less than 1.18 crore current and former Central government employees. The effective number will go far beyond this figure since many state governments and PSUs are expected to use the recommendations as a benchmark to revise their own pay and pensions.

Officials indicate that the government typically approves the commission's report within a time window of three to six months. So, if the recommendations are submitted in April 2027, one can expect July 2027 to be a possible date for implementing the recommendations. But if the past is any indicator, a few months of delay could add on stretching the culmination to January 2028. it means employees and pensioner might have to wait longer.

One could recall that the constitution of the 7th Pay Commission was announced in September 2013. Its terms of reference was approved in February 2014 -- five months later. The commission submitted its report in November 2015. The Central government under Narendra Modi approved it in June 2016. This works out to a full 28 months from the time the terms of reference were approved to the implementation. The pay and pension hikes were effective from January 1, 2016.

If one takes this as a benchmark, the and if the 8th Pay Commission recommendations are available in April 2027 and implemented in July 2027, this would be a realistic timeline. But, considering a downside when the process could be delayed, the employees and pensioners might have to wait until January 2028.

Records show that the 6th Pay Commission was announced in July 2006. Its terms of reference were approved in October 2006. The commission submitted its recommendations in March 2008, and the Cabinet approved it in August 2008. Therefore, the 6th Pay Commission recommendations took a period of 22 months to implement and the new salary and pension were effected from January 1, 2006.