8th Pay Commission: Central Government’s salary increase order… double good news for Indian Railway employees.

8th Pay Commission: According to information received from the Central Government, once the recommendations of the 8th Pay Commission are implemented, the salary of Indian Railways employees will increase significantly compared to all other government employees. The reason for this is that there may be significant changes in the expenditure of Railways after the implementation of the recommendations of the 8th Pay Commission. The Railway Department is making every possible effort to reduce expenses and is preparing to make every possible saving to improve its financial position. It is believed that railway employees will get the most benefit in the form of pay hike. 18 months time to submit the report! The Eighth Pay Commission was constituted in January 2025. But this commission was given 18 months time to prepare the report and submit it to the Central Government. At the same time, Railways has set a deadline of 2026 to improve its financial position. Railways have taken lessons from the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission. When the Seventh Pay Commission was implemented in 2016, the salaries of employees increased by 14 to 26 percent. Due to this, Railways had to bear an additional burden of about Rs 22 thousand crores every year for the payment of salaries and pensions of the employees. Now, if the recommendations of the Eighth Pay Commission are implemented, this burden may reach approximately Rs 30 thousand crores. Railways alert! It is being said that the Railway officials are alert about the additional funds required for payment of salaries and pensions of the employees if the recommendations of the Eighth Pay Commission are implemented. It is also learned that the department has prepared a comprehensive plan to effectively manage this additional burden. Augmentation of internal resources, increasing operational efficiency and increasing freight revenue are the current goals of Railways. The department has crossed its target: Railways had an operating ratio of 98.90 per cent in the financial year 2024-25 and earned a net profit of Rs 1,341.31 crore. It is expected to improve the operating ratio to 98.43 per cent and increase the net income to Rs 3,041.31 crore in the financial year 2025-26. Savings a priority! Railways has paid special attention to saving power. He expects huge savings from this. Electrification of the rail network is likely to save it about Rs 5,000 crore annually. Also, since a large portion of capital expenditure in recent years has been funded from budgetary support, payments to the Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC) will reduce from financial year 2027-28. Information has been received that Railways has decided to save on this also. Amidst all these developments, the demands of railway employees’ unions can create challenges for the Railway Department. The Seventh Pay Commission had implemented a fitment factor of 2.57. Now the unions are demanding fitment factor of 2.86. If this demand is accepted, salary expenditure will increase by more than 22 percent. This will become a burden on the department.