Pay Commission is right of employees: Commerce Minister Anand Sharma

NEW DELHI: Commerce Minister Anand Sharma today said the Pay Commission is the right of the employees and the next government will definitely have funds to implement its recommendations.

"It is the right of the employees to have Pay Commission ... when the recommendations come, the government will be able to implement (it). You do not do something for which you do not have money available," he told reporters here.

Sharma was commenting on the the decision to constitute the Seventh Pay Commission, which will go into the salaries, allowances and pensions of about 80 lakh government employees and pensioners.

He said the fundamentals of the economy is strong and the situation will improve.

India's economic growth has slipped to decade's low of 5 per cent in 2012-13 and the growth rate has dipped to 4.4 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram earlier in the day announced setting up of the 7th Pay Commission whose recommendations would be implemented from January 1, 2016.

The announcement came ahead of the Assembly elections due in five states in November and general elections next year.

The government constitutes Pay Commission in every 10 years to revise the pay scales of its employees and often these are adopted by states after some modification.

The sixth Pay Commission was implemented from January 1, 2006, fifth from January 1, 1996 and fourth from January 1, 1986.

The names of the chairperson and members of the 7th Pay Commission and its terms of reference will be finalised shortly after consultation with major stakeholders, Chidambaram said.