Implementation of Eighth Pay Commission recommendations; amendments bypassing Supreme Court verdict

NEW DELHI: Finance Bill with Eighth Pay Commission proposal to categorize pensioners based on their retirement date like the Sixth Pay Commission, passed in the Lok Sabha. This is to override the Supreme Court's verdict that there should be no discrimination against pensioners.

There is also an amendment that gives discretion to decide when to implement the recommendations of the Pay Commission. The opposition protested and boycotted the vote on the bill, saying it was a move to deny the benefits of the Eighth Pay Commission to old pensioners.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman explained that the provisions of the Sixth Pay Commission, which was approved by the then UPA government in March 2008, were not implemented due to court intervention and that it is being brought back after 17 years. Earlier, during the discussion on the bill, Congress's KC Venugopal and RSP's NK Premachandran had alleged that the amendment to categorize pensioners had an ulterior motive. In response, the Finance Minister said that when the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations were implemented, pensions were made equal for those who retired before and after January 1, 2016.

The Finance Bill was passed by rejecting the amendments by NK Premachandran and accepting 35 amendments brought by the government, including the one that would remove the 6 percent digital tax on online advertisements. The budget process for 2025-26 will be completed once the bill is approved by the Rajya Sabha.