The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations during its meeting.

NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations during its meeting.

The Centre had earlier in earlier in January set up a panel headed by Cabinet Secretary P. K. Sinha to process the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission, which is expected to change the remuneration of 47 lakh central government employees and 52 lakh pensioners.

The Pay Commission had recommended 23.55 per cent overall hike in salaries, allowances and pension involving an additional burden of Rs 1.02 lakh crore or nearly 0.7 per cent of the GDP.

The panel recommended a 14.27 per cent increase in basic pay, the lowest in 70 years. The previous 6th Pay Commission had recommended a 20 per cent hike which the government doubled while implementing it in 2008.

The 23.55 per cent increase includes hike in allowances.

The entry level pay has been recommended to be raised to Rs 18,000 per month from current Rs 7,000 while the maximum pay, drawn by the Cabinet Secretary, has been fixed at Rs 2.5 lakh per month from current Rs 90,000.

The implementation of new pay scales recommended by the Seventh Pay Commission is estimated to put an additional burden of Rs 1.02 lakh crore on the exchequer annually.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had in his Budget for 2016-17 provisioned Rs. 70,000 crore towards the Seventh Pay Commission, which is around 60 percent of the incremental expenditure on salaries.

The Pay Commission’s recommendations are due from January 1, 2016.

The Commission was set up by the former UPA government in February 2014 to revise remuneration of the central government employees.

(With inputs from agencies)