7^th PAY COMMINUTION

By 

Shree Kumar Menon

“Shri D.K. Rai, a young officer from Accounts and Finance stream who had a deep insight into the financial matters especially, the defence. His knowledge about defence finance has been of great help to this Commission in determining the pay structure for the forces. He is a

young man and hold a long career before him and his insight into the financial intricacies of

the pay structure of the defence service will take him to great height.”

the above is an extract from Acknowledgements by the Chairman of 7^th Central Pay Comminution.

Shocking that a retired Justice would not have the Sagacity to understand the officially congenital bias of an IDAS officer and has relied on him to prepare the pay revision for the Indian Military. It’s like asking the Pakistanis to rate the fighting efficiency of the Indian Army. Mind you, they (the Pakis) may be more fair and objective than the Indian Babus.

The result is for all to see.

FIRSTLY: The Chairman should take his member to task for improper advice. The Pay Commission graphs titled “Defence Revenue Expenditure and % Share of Revenue Expenditure”: (Pg 119 6.1.20, 7^th PC) is a misrepresentation of facts. It takes into account only .01% of the Defence forces that reaches the Lt Gen Rank and compares those 95% of Civil servants who reach Addl Secretary Level and attempts to present a façade of satisfactory remunerations to the Defence Personnel.

Was this intentional or mischievous?   This could have been validated if the Chairman had called for the Defence Revenue expenditure and segregated it into that paid for Military personnel and Civilians paid from Defence Estimates

SECONDLY: Ref ---Page 27 -- 2.1.1 This Commission is required by its Terms of Reference to make its recommendations keeping in view, inter alia:

(i)    The economic conditions in the country and the need for fiscal prudence;

Ex Servicemen have been agitating for One Rank one 

Pension for over 160 days now and the Govt. has been       

haggling with them to reduce days with the plea that OROP 

is fiscal Burden. Now we have a Pay commission that 

supposedly has deliberated as per its terms of reference 

(given above) and recommends OROP for all Gp A 

Central Govt. employees. Defies Logic?

(ii)   As per 7th PC details there are 99000 Gp A employees (33.02 lakh civilian employees of which 3% are in Gp A) and 66000 Military officers. Only 4000 of these 66000 Military officers will reach the Maj Gen/Jt Secy Level whereas 100% (i.e. 99000) of the Gp A Employees will be given OROP. What fiscal prudence is this? Has the Pay Commission just relied on the “Young” officer Members to present reports that satisfy their immature fetish of inter-departmental rivalry?

(iii)  And the WORST is that a Pay Commission becomes selective in presentation of Facts. For e.g. India is 32nd on the list of Countries compared in Defence expenditure as a percentage of GDP.

               Rank            Country              Military expenditures - 

                                                                 percent of GDP

	14               Armenia                                                         3.92               15               Kyrgyzstan                                  3.74               16               Angola                                  3.63               17               Morocco                                  3.55               18               Singapore                                  3.52               19               Colombia                                  3.28               20               Swaziland                                  3.17               21               Bahrain                                  3.14               22               Namibia                                  3.11               23               Pakistan                                  3.04               24               Zimbabwe                                  2.94               25               East Timor                                  2.92               26               Iraq                                  2.88               27               Georgia                                  2.88               28               Ecuador                                  2.83               29               Korea, South                                  2.8               30               Ukraine                                  2.77               31               United Kingdom                                  2.49               32               India                                  2.43

It may be noted that Pakistan is at 23.

Source: CIA World Fact book. As of Jan 01, 2014 (http://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?v=132 ) 

With such a low fiscal priority on Defence why do we want to claim Permanent status in the UNSC? Are we eligible?

 THIRDLY:  Ref Page 1 -Sanctioned Strength table 1. The 7^th PC should have noted this anomaly where a 12 Lakh strong military has 3.9 Lakhs civilian staff as flab. Many of these posts could be held by Military personnel themselves as reservists. For e.g.  IAF Accounts Officers could man Senior IDAS posts and Technical officers could be in keys roles in DRDO etc.

FOURTHLY:  Ref Page 129 Graph and Para 6.2.19 --‘In fact the pay of defence service officers remains uninterruptedly higher for a thirty-two year period. Thereafter pay of defence and civil service officers are at par.‘

What a Gross Misrepresentation of Facts.

This is only for .01% of Defence officers who reach the level of Lt Gen/ Addl Secy. For 99% of Defence Officers the Civilian Gp A officer overtakes his Military counterpart by the 15^th year of 

Service. Here it is pertinent to note that the Military Officers Qualifying Service commences on Commissioning whereas the Civilian commences his innings from the Training establishment.

FIFTHLY:  The Much Hyped about Aykroyds formula is only to determine the Minimum wages considering that Dr. Wallace Aykroyd stated that an average Indian needs 2700 calories (he specified proteins etc) and minimum wages is fixed at the present purchasing cost thereof for 2700 calories of food. Thereafter the tables are as flawed as the understanding of the originator. For e.g. Page 23 1.22 It is also recommended that the matrix may be reviewed periodically without waiting for the long period of ten years. It can be reviewed and revised on the basis of the Aykroyd formula which takes into consideration the changes prices of the commodities that constitute a common man’s basket, which the Labour Bureau at Shimla reviews periodically -A Pay Commission should be competent enough to have known that govt. servants are compensated for price revisions by way of Dearness Allowance and this Aykroyd mumbo jumbo is not required. Also if the Aykroyds formula was used for minimum wage determination then was the extra calories required by an Army Jawan taken into consideration to fix the Minimum Wages and move the Matrix up?

SIXTHLY: Ref Page 130, Para 6.2.24 Comparison of Purchasing Power Parity. These figures seem suspect. Why has the same not been used on the civilian side? If a global comparison was to have been done why was it mentioned that in other countries Pensions for the Military are 68% to 75% of last drawn pay. In the supposedly widely researched subject why was this omitted – or was it a commission? The lack of knowledge of the commission on Matters military has been amplified by the fact that the Comparison has been made between India, US and UK. The morale and satisfaction levels would be better applied to our immediate adversaries’ viz. Pakistan and China. Pointless doing a comparison with Swedish or Nicaraguan military. Incidentally only former Commonwealth countries like India and Pakistan have JCO ranks. US and UK have only up to Regimental Sergeant Majors so I wonder how this Subedar Major equivalent has been included.

In the US the PPP also includes allowances like Food Allowances etc. and the allowances are more than 50% of salary.

LASTLY:  I WISH THE CHAIRMAN HAD NOT LEFT IMPORTANT ISSUES ENTIRELY TO YOUNG BUREAUCRATS SINCE THESE AFFECT NOT ONLY THE WELL BEING OF MILLIONS BUT ALSO NATIONAL SECURITY.

If it was so then we would not have had ranks like Lieutenant and Lieutenant Colonel (Page 193) or Lieutenant General (page331) being introduced. Thank God they didn’t suggest Leftinent Colonel and Rightinent Colonel.

We hope the Service HQs get Proactive and downright rejects all anomalies rather than leaving it for Veterans and future Veterans to fight it out in the Courts for years to come while they stand aside as self-serving spectators.