The minimum salary of government employees’ salaries is likely to be hiked after the Union Budget 2023, according to a report by Zee News. The report cited a source saying that the government may take a decision of revising the fitment factor of the government employees’ salaries.
The report says that there has been a demand from the central employees for a long time to change the fitment factor. Sources claim that several rounds of meetings have been held regarding this and the government is planning to implement this before 2024, and it can be announced to be implemented in March 2023 after the budget.
The fitment factor is a common value that is multiplied by the basic pay to arrive at the total salary of government employees. As of now the common fitment factor stands at 2.57 per cent.
According to the reports on other media portals, employees have been demanding the government raise the fitment factor to 3.68. The hike will raise the minimum wage from Rs 18,000 currently to Rs 26,000.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to deliver the Budget Speech for 2023 on February 1. Parliament's budget session will begin on January 31.
Earlier it was reported that the central government is also likely to hike the dearness allowance (DA) of government employees in March 2023, effective January 1. DA and DR are revised twice a year, effective January 1 and July 1. The most recent increase, in September, lifted the DA by 4 per cent to 38 per cent, benefiting around 48 lakh central government employees and 68 lakh retirees. Prior to this, the government boosted the DA by 3 per cent to 34 per cent in March.
Recently, the finance ministry also updated the house rent allowance (HRA) rules for central government employees under the 7th Pay Commission.