8th Pay Commission TOR passed: Crores of employees are in trouble, but how will the budget be made?

The Term of Reference (TOR) of the 8th Pay Commission has also been approved, which has strengthened the hopes of crores of government employees and pensioners. The process of change in salary, allowances and pension is now going to start formally. However, this good news is only for the employees, not for the government. Experts believe that once this commission is implemented, there will be a huge burden on the budget of the Center and the states, which can affect the economic plans for the coming years.

How will the Pay Commission process proceed?

After the formation of the commission, the government has now started the phase of preparing a detailed report. This report will be made on the basis of several rounds of meetings and review of data. After this, a group of ministers will examine it and then send it to the government for the final decision. According to experts, this entire journey may take about two to three years, so it would not be right to expect an immediate salary increase.

There will be an additional burden of crores on the government treasury

Neelkanth Mishra, a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council and a well-known economist, has clearly warned that once the 8th Pay Commission is implemented, there will be a huge impact on the public finances of the government. According to him, if the recommendations are implemented, the total payment of salary and pension can reach more than Rs 4 lakh crore. If some past dues are also added, this amount can go up to about Rs 9 lakh crore.

This means that in every upcoming budget, the government will have to see how such a huge expenditure can be handled, and how it does not impact other schemes. Neelkanth Mishra said that it will be very challenging for the government to implement the recommendations of the Pay Commission keeping in mind the debt-to-GDP rules.

Impact will also be visible on treasury funds

This warning has come at a time when India is preparing to make changes in its debt-GDP treasury rules from 2027. Neelkanth Mishra said that currently inflation is low, due to which there is some extra space in the economy, but the huge cost of Pay Commission will reduce this space to a great extent. This means that the scope for the government to control expenditure and savings will be limited.

Pensioners’ worries gone – pension also under the purview of the commission

When the TOR was issued, complaints were lodged that pension revision was not clearly mentioned in it. Because of this, the apprehension had increased that pension might be taken out of the purview of the commission. This was a serious issue for more than 69 lakh pensioners. But now the government has made it clear in the Rajya Sabha that the Pay Commission will give recommendations on salary, allowances and pension. With this, the worries of pensioners have almost ended.