8th pay commission: The Union government has finally put to rest the speculation surrounding the inclusion of pension revision in the 8th Pay Commission. This comes as a major relief for nearly 69 lakh pensioners who were worried that they might be excluded from the benefits under the new CPC.
Pension revision to be included in the 8th Pay Commission?
During a query raised in the Rajya Sabha in the winter session, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary addressed the confusion about pension revision being left out of the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the 8th CPC. He confirmed that pension revision will indeed be part of the commission’s mandate, along with other key components. “The 8th CPC will make its recommendations on the various issues viz. Pay, Allowances, Pension, etc. of the central government employees,” he said in his reply, clarifying whether pension revision had been removed from the CPC.
Here’s what the govt said about the DA merger
However, in an unexpected setback for nearly 1.2 crore central government employees and pensioners, the Centre clarified that there is currently no proposal to merge the Dearness Allowance (DA) with basic pay, a long-pending demand among workers. MoS Pankaj Chaudhary informed the Lok Sabha, while responding to a query, that although the government has notified the formation of the 8th CPC, there is no plan as of now to merge DA or DR into basic pay.
“No proposal regarding the merger of the existing dearness allowance with the basic pay is under consideration with the government at present. To offset the rising cost of living and prevent erosion of the real value of pay and pension due to inflation, DA/DR rates are revised every six months based on the AICPI-IW data released by the Labour Bureau,” the minister stated.
The anxiety regarding pension revision grew after the 8th CPC’s ToR did not explicitly mention it, worrying nearly 6.9 million pensioners. This led to speculation that, unlike previous Pay Commissions, they might miss out on revised pension benefits. Terms such as “unfunded cost of non-contributory pension schemes” also raised concerns among employees, who argued that pension is not a government favour but a constitutional right.
Workers’ associations, through several letters sent to the Union government — including to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman — demanded a clear mention of pension revision in the ToR. They warned that omitting it would be an unprecedented move and would negatively impact millions of pensioners.
8th Pay Commission to be implemented soon?
PM Modi led Union cabinet approved the ToR of the 8th CPC last month which would benefit the 50 lakh central govt employees and 69 lakh pensioners and could also impact the salaries and allowances of employees working under various state governments. The govt usually takes about 18to 24 months to implement the recommendations as per the pervious pay commissions. This means the rollout of the 8th Pay Commission is unlikely to happen before mid-2027, and several reports indicate that its implementation could even be postponed to early 2028.
