7th Pay Commission likely to recommend Jan 1, July 1 as Annual Increment issuing days
“On July 1 of each year, annual increments are given for all the Central Government employees. So, tomorrow is the “Increment Day” for all.”
The 6th Pay Commission had introduced the practice of granting annual increment for all on the same day. Until then, increments were implemented for the employees based either on their date of joining or on their promotion dates.
In order to reduce the monthly work burden and for administrative expediency, suggestions from the various departments were presented to the 6th Pay Commission to recommend a single day as increment date. The 6th Pay Commission had recommend 1st July of earch year as increment day. From 01.01.2006 onwards, July 1 was made the day of implementation of annual increments to all CG staff.
Employees who are appointed after January 1st are not eligible for that year’s annual increment on July 1. They qualify for annual increment only the next year. And those who retire on 30th June, they are not eligible for annual increment.
The new increment rule continues to make a huge impact, when employees are joining duty and retire from duty, due to complex CCS (RP) rules on increment. Pointing out the practical difficulties in implementing this scheme, the National Council JCM suggested to the 7th Pay Commission may recommend that two specific dates, Viz January 1st and July 1st.
According to the NC JCM Staff Side suggestion, those recruited/appointed/promoted during the period between 1st January and 30th June will have their increment date on 1st January and those recruited/appointed/promoted between 1st July and 31st December will have it on 1st July next year.
It was also suggested to recommend that those who retire on June 30 and December 31 should be given one increment on the last day of their service.
Reliable sources confirm that, instead of granting 1st July, the 7th Pay Commission may recommend to implement a 2 Day annual increment method.