AP Govt. employees salary hiked, to entail additional burden of Rs.10,247 crore

Vijayawada Showering a bonanza on government employees, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday increased retirement age, pegged PRC at 23 percent and announced a timeline for Contributory Retirement Scheme (CPS).

Speaking at a meeting with various employees' unions at atv Tadepalli near here, the Chief Minister announced a fitment of 23 percent, where the new pay scales shall come into force from January, 2022. He said retirement age will go up from 60 to 62 years.

The decision to increase salary will put an additional burden of Rs.10,247 crore on the State exchequer, a senior official told Bizz Buzz.

The Chief Minister said that the announced fitment is almost 9 percent more than the suggested PRC of 14.29 percent by the Chief Secretary-led Committee. It will be implemented with retrospective effect from 1-7-2018. Similarly, the monetary benefits will be applied from 1-4-2020 and the enhanced pay scale along with pending DA will be effective from January 2022.

Also, all the pending arrears like PF, GLI, leave encashments will be cleared by April 2022.

Considering employees' experience as an asset to the State, the Chief Minister announced to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 years to make better use of their services, which will be implemented from this January. With regard to CPS, he said that a decision will be made by the end of June, as a Cabinet Subcommittee has already been looking into it.

Further, the Chief Minister assured that jobs will be provided to family members of the employees who died of Covid-19, under compassionate grounds by the end of June and also constituted a committee with the Chief Secretary to revamp the Employee Health Scheme (EHS) for better implementation and told to resolve the issues within two-weeks.

For those employees working in the Village and Ward Secretariats a revised pay scale will be given from July this year after the completion of probation and confirmation process by June 30.

He also announced to provide houses to those employees who don't own a house by reserving 10 percent of the plots in MIG layouts in Jagananna Smart Townships and 20 percent rebate will be provided. The constituency will be treated as a unit and affirmed that no employee will be deprived of housing.

The Chief Minister said that many states are already implementing the central government's pay revision and mentioned that the state government shall also follow the same from now on.

The Chief Minister held talks with the union leaders of various government employees organisations along with Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath and Government Advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy prior to the announcement.