Not only the central employees of the country but also lakhs of pensioners are eagerly waiting for the recommendations of the 8th Pay Commission. Although the Pay Commission will submit its final recommendations to the government in the first half of next year i.e. 2027, but just before that, a series of rapid meetings are going on across the country. Through these meetings, intensive brainstorming is being done on the major demands of different employee organizations. In this context, recently very important meetings of the Pay Commission with various employee organizations were held in Chandigarh for three consecutive days. After this, the Pay Commission has now started preparations for the important meetings to be held in Bengaluru on 7th and 8th October 2026.
Big issues of salary and pension raised in Chandigarh meeting
During these meetings held in Chandigarh, many big and important demands were put forward. This time too, a major change in the salary structure and fitment factor has emerged as the biggest issue. Along with this, all the pensioner organizations of the country have strongly demanded major changes in the rules of Dearness Relief (DR) and the method of its payment. Apart from this, many proposals have also been placed on the table regarding payment of pension and other reforms related to it.
Organizations made surprising suggestions regarding dearness relief (DR)
Before the 8th Pay Commission, different employees and pensioners' organizations have presented many new and interesting suggestions regarding inflation relief. Bharat Pensioners' Society (BPS) has demanded that changes in dearness relief should be made in a more regular manner. His proposals mainly involve the idea of revising the inflation relief on a quarterly basis based on the average inflation index of every three months. The organization has also demanded that an in-depth review be conducted of the actual compensation received by pensioners in the face of rising inflation.
On the other hand, 'Federation of National Postal Organizations' (FNPO) has demanded that whenever dearness allowance or dearness relief increases by more than 25%, serious consideration should be given to merging it directly into basic pay or pension. The organization has sought to create a permanent system for regular and timely review of salaries. It has also been said that when DA/DR increases to 50%, the fitment factor should be reviewed again.
How is the rate of dearness relief decided?
For your information, let us tell you that the rate of dearness relief is directly linked to the inflation figures of the country. Under the current system, the data of All India Industrial Workers Consumer Price Index i.e. AICPI-IW is used for this. Since the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission, a fixed base index has been made the main basis for calculating dearness relief for pensioners.
Know the complete schedule and panel of the 8th Pay Commission
Let us tell you that the 8th Pay Commission is a temporary institution, which was constituted by the Central Government on November 3, 2025 for a full tenure of 18 months. This commission consists of a total of three members, in which Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai is its chairperson, Pulak Ghosh is its part-time member and Pankaj Jain is playing the role of its member-secretary. This panel of the 8th Pay Commission has successfully completed its journey of more than 10 months of its total scheduled time. During this period, the Commission has held many important meetings in different parts of the country, which mainly include states like Delhi, Ladakh, West Bengal, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh.
Taking this trend forward, the Pay Commission will now visit Bengaluru on 7th and 8th October. The main objective of the Commission is to ensure full participation of all the eligible stakeholders of the country and to maintain a transparent and democratic discussion process. It is believed that these much awaited recommendations of the 8th Pay Commission may come by May-June 2027. It will be completely clear from these final recommendations that under the next salary and pension structure, the existing dearness relief system will be kept the same, some changes will be made in it or it will be completely changed.