8th Pay Commission: ₹58,000 minimum pension for Level 7? Check Level 4–7 math

Several employee and pensioner associations have made pension-related recommendations to the 8th Pay Commission. The NC-JCM, the AIDEF and the Bharat Pensioners Samaj (BPS), among others, have proposed that the last-drawn pension be 67% of the last salary drawn, while family pension should be 50% of the last pay drawn.
AINPSEF and BPS, among others, have also recommended One Rank, One Pension (OROP) for civilian pensioners, including those covered under NPS and UPS.

Employee and pensioner bodies have proposed that the minimum pension at any level should not be lower than 50% of the minimum basic pay applicable to that level, regardless of when the employee retired. For example, under the 7th CPC, the minimum basic pay for a Level 1 employee is Rs 18,000. Under this proposal, the minimum pension for a Level 1 employee would therefore be Rs 9,000.

Under the 7th Central Pay Commission, pension under the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) is ordinarily calculated at 50% of the last basic pay or the average basic pay of the last 10 months, whichever is higher. Here, for the estimates, pension is considered at 50% of the last basic pay drawn.

Under the 7th CPC, the basic pension under the 6th Pay Commission was multiplied by a 2.57 fitment factor to arrive at the 7th CPC pension. For the 8th CPC estimates, the government is expected to take the same approach, multiplying the 7th CPC pension by the assumed fitment factor.
Since the actual fitment factor will be known only after the government notifies the 8th Pay Commission recommendations, this calculation considers 2.15, 2.28 and 2.57 as possible scenarios.

If a 2.15 fitment factor is applied to the 7th CPC pension, the estimated pension for Level 4-7 employees would be calculated accordingly.

If a 2.28 fitment factor is applied to the 7th CPC pension, the estimated pension for Level 4-7 employees would be higher than that under the 2.15 fitment factor scenario.

If the 2.57 fitment factor used under the 7th CPC is applied to the 7th CPC pension for the 8th CPC, the estimated pension for Level 4-7 employees can be calculated accordingly.