Himachal cabinet on Monday gave nod for providing revised pay scales as per recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission to about two lakh government employees in the state.
The decision was taken by the cabinet during a meeting held under Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur here.
The decision would put an additional burden of about Rs 4000 crore annually on the state exchequer.
“The revised pay scales will be given to the employees with retrospective effect from January 1. The employees would get salary of January, 2022 payable in February, 2022 in revised pay scale.
The State Government has already provided interim relief of about Rs 5000 crore to the employees as part of the arrears,” said an official spokesman.
He said that after the revised pay scales due to higher fixation about 1,05,000 NPS employees, Rs 260 crore would be spent as government contribution as 6 years arrears under NPS. Decision was also taken to increase the salary of contract employees, the spokesman said.
The cabinet also gave its nod to promulgate Himachal Pradesh Swarn Jayanti (Legacy Cases Resolution) Scheme, 2021 for settlement of arrears of tax, fee, interest, penalty etc. which are pending for recovery or are pending in the appellate forums or may accrue in future as a result of disposal of pending tax assessment under the various enactments.
This would also address the tax dues which are trapped in the cases that have not been assessed so far as well as those cases where arrears have been declared under the Himachal Pradesh Land Revenue Act, 1954. This would help in redressal of over 1.68 lakh cases, the spokesman said.
The cabinet also gave its consent to fill up five posts of Himachal Pradesh Administrative Services through Himachal Pradesh Joint Competitive Examinations-2021 on regular basis.
It also approved the draft of ‘Swarn Jayanti Gram Swarojgar (Parivahan) Yojna to allow unemployed youth to ply 18 seater vehicles on certain routes at concessional tax rates.
This scheme would provide mobility to rural areas and will also provide employment to rural youth, the spokesman said.