7th Pay Commission: Recommendations have been approved by the Indian Railways for its running staff. The Indian Railways gives a monthly running allowance to its running staff that includes Loco Drivers, Assistant Loco Drivers and Guards. The running staff facilitates movement of the railways. The Indian Railways has given its nod to almost double the current running allowance of approximately Rs.255 per kilometre to Rs.520 per kilometre.

The 7th CPC Recommendations proposed hike for Indian Railways staff will now be forwarded to the Finance Ministry for its approval as the implementation of the same will cost almost 200% of current salaries of the running staff to the exchequer. Currently, approximately Rs.1,150 Crores is allocated for the running staff, and implementing the 7th Pay Commission recommendation given above will increase this allocation to roughly Rs.2,375 Crores.

If approved by the Modi government, the Indian Railways will hike the salaries with effect from 1 st January 2019 for the Loco Drivers, Assistant Loco Drivers and Guards, while also disbursing the arrears with retrospective effect from 1 st July 2017 onwards.

It can be noted here that the running allowance is 70% tax-free as the same does not fall under daily allowance to the employee. The Indian Railways running staff has to pay income tax on 30% of the running allowance or Rs.10,000, whichever is less. The central government has recently approved 7th Pay Commission recommendations for teachers and academic staff of technical universities in India that come under the purview of AICTE, which gives a ray of hope other central government employees too, who’ve been long pursuing the centre to hike their salaries and increase the fitment factor.

Running staff of the Indian Railways can stay tuned as the centre may announce its approval on 7th Pay Commission recommendations during the Interim Budget 2019.

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