Budget dashes hope of pay and DA hike

Kolkata: The Bengal budget came as a disappointment to government employees as allocation for salaries showed that the sixth pay commission's recommendations were unlikely to be implemented or their dearness allowance might not be increased in the next one year.

"With the paltry hike of Rs 3,036.69 crore, we can give one instalment of DA and mandatory annual increment of 3 per cent of the basic pay next fiscal," said a senior finance department official.

Bengal government employees claim they were getting 39 per cent less DA compared to central staff. Besides, they are being deprived of a revised pay structure as the Centre has already implemented the new pay commission recommendations, which was followed by several states.

The tenure of the pay commission, set up by Mamata Banerjee in November 2015, has already been extended twice and its tenure would end in November, 2018.

According to the "Budget at a Glance" for 2018-19, a summary of budgetary allocations and proposed expenditures, amount for salaries has been increased to Rs 42,070.33 crore from Rs 39,033.64 crore in 2017-18.