7th Pay Commission: Good News For Central Government Employees As Centre Tweaks Salary Structure

In yet another cheering moment for the central government employees, the union government has decided to dole out increments for stenographers close on the heels of tweaking the night duty allowance (NDA) rules, as part of the recommendations of 7th Pay Commission.

According to the new rules, stenographers hired based on the speed test in shorthand at 80 words per minute (80 wpm) will be given one increment in advance, if he/she qualifies speed test in shorthand at 100 w.p.m.

Candidates that qualify speed test in shorthand at 120 w.p.m. will be granted an additional advance increment, along with the one granted for qualifying speed test in shorthand at 80 w.p.m, according to the rules for regulation of advance increments to stenographers of subordinate offices.

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The new rule further stipulates, if a person directly qualifies speed test in shorthand at 120 words per minute (w.p.m) after being recruited on the basis of speed test in shorthand at 80 w.p.m, he/she will be eligible for two increments in advance.

According to an official memorandum (O.M) issued by the DoPT, such speed tests will be carried out by the concerned authorities, and the advance increment will be treated as a separate element independent of the basic pay.

"Once these advance increments are taken into account for the purpose of fixation of pay on promotion or being placed in a higher scale on grant of MACP or due to revision of pay scale or pay structure etc., these advance increments no longer continue as a separate element," the O.M from the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) added, as reported in the Financial Express.

Earlier, the DoPT, as part of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations had notified new rules concerning the new night duty allowance (NDA) rules. Given this, it issued a new set of instructions for executing the new NDA norms.

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As per the new instructions, as recommended by the 7th Pay Commission, any duty performed between 10 pm to 6 am is considered as night duty with Rs. 43,600 (per month) as a fixed ceiling on the basic pay to be entitled for night duty allowance.

The DoPT instructions also state that the Centre will pay the night duty allowance (NDA) at the hourly rate equivalent to BP+DA/200 as recommended by the 7th Pay Commission.

The current move by the Centre is a sustained part of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations, which is likely to put more money in the hands of the central government employees, especially stenographers.