The eyes of the central government employees will be firmly glued on the forthcoming 6th Pay Commission Pay Scale, which is likely to be announced on Friday, Aug 15.

The central government has sanctioned the setting up of the sixth pay commission to revise salary structures plus other perks for its 5.5 million staff across the country.

The sixth pay commission is estimated to cost the government an additional Rs 20,000 crore.

The Centre assured that the sixth pay commission report would be "beneficial" for the employees as administration is keen to provide comprehensive and fine salary packages to attract quality human resource.

The upcoming pay commission would give recommendations regarding the pay structure of government employees including industrial as well as non- industrial central government employees, all-India services, armed forces personnel and employees in the Union Territories.

Moreover, the commission would consider the pay structure for Indian audit and accounts department, regulatory bodies established by Acts in Parliament and Supreme Court employees.

Normally, a central government employee’s total salary comprises a basic salary, a 51% dearness pay along with basic and a 41% dearness allowance of the total.

The sixth pay Commission will result in a hike of 28% in basic salary of central government staff in various categories. The central 6th pay commission scales may also help employees to fight with the growing inflation.

The expected pay scale table of the sixth pay commission pay structure may also result in a decent increase in the salaries of employees working in private sector.
 
A high level meeting on Wednesday led by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh along with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister AK Antony and Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram discussed the pay commission information and the suggestions of the empowered group of Secretaries that entered the anomalies and other subjects.

A senior Union minister said that Cabinet is ready to sanction the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations today.  

The commission had recommended several changes like staggered timings for women, introduction of performance related incentives, forcing central para-military services to recruit personnel from ex-servicemen after they complete 17 years of service in the armed forces and cutting down the number of gazetted holidays after nearly 17 days to three.

But all things get cleared after the submission of the sixth commission report.