Death Gratuity Report

The 7th Pay Commission which was announced in Sept. 2015 a report was furnished to modify the current Death Gratuity structure of all Central Govt. employees. There were some discrepancies in the old structures of death gratuity, for which the families of the dead pensioners were suffering. The 7th Pay Commission was submitted on 3rd September, 2015 by a bench headed by retired Supreme Court Justice of A. K. Mathur. This new Pay Commission was submitted to the Finance Ministry, which is currently headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. This new pay commission brings with it a lot of joys, surprises, fulfills many expectations and also falls short in some areas. According to sources, it will get implemented from 1st Jan, 2016.

Near about 48 lakh Govt. employees working under central govt., public sectors, universities, etc will get benefits of the new pay structures stated under the new pay commission. In addition to this, all pensioners of central govt. which counts approximately 55 lakh will get their pension structures revised and hiked along with other allowances. This new pay revision will bring about 23.55% increments in basic pay and a 63% increment in several allowances received by the central govt. employees. The annual hike in salaries is kept 3% as previous. That means the net salaries are expected to go up by 16% aggregate. According to the commission reports, the minimum salary of govt. employees will be Rs. 18,000 where as the maximum will shoot up to Rs. 2.5 lakh. Following protests for One Rank One Pension (OROP), the defense service employees were given special preference this time. Parity is suggested to be brought between the pension structures of the past retired defense personals with the pension structures of the currently retired defense personals. Also allowances like Military Pay Service (MSP), Siachen Allowance, etc. are proposed to be hiked by a large extent.

The current structures in Death Gratuity is also reported to be rationalized by the commission as there were some ambiguities in the current one specially in the 5 year – 20 year slab. Death Gratuity is a one-time amount paid by the Govt. to the family or widow or the nominee of a govt. employee in case of death before retirement. This lump sum amount helps to give some financial support to the dependable family members of the dead Govt. employee during service. This gratuity is granted to all employees, be it permanent or temporary on contractual basis. Following some dissatisfaction shown by the Department of Pensions, the rates for Death Gratuity is framed newly in this 7th Pay Commission. There are various slabs according to which Death Gratuity is calculated. The new rates are as follows:

 

Service Period Death Gratuity
Less than 1 year 2 times of Basic salary
1 year or more but below 5 year 6 times of Basic salary
5 years or more but below 11 years 12 times the Basic salary
11 years or more but below 20 years 20 times the Basic salary
20 years and above Half month emoluments for every complete 6 monthly period of qualifying service subjected to maximum of 33 times of monthly emoluments

Table reference- http://india.gov.in/nomination-retirement-gratuity-death-gratuity.

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