Setting up of the sixth pay commission and its terms of reference are to be finalised by the Union Cabinet when it meets on Thursday.
According to top government sources, the commission, announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in February 2006, will be headed by a chairman, who will hold the rank of a minister of state.
He will be assisted by a permanent member secretary and a part-time member. The commission is to give its report by March 2008.
While the financial implications of setting up the commission have not been spelt out yet, it has been mandated with containing the level of expenditure under various items.
The terms of reference of the commission will cover all government staff -- industrial and non-industrial, of all-India services, and the armed forces. It will also examine the principles governing pensions, death-cum-retirement benefits, family pensions and other terminal benefits.
In the note for the Cabinet, the department of personnel and training has said that 16 state governments had called for central help in sharing the financial burden arising out of the proposed pay revision.
An annexure listing the response of the 16 state governments to the proposed pay commission has been attached to the Cabinet note.
The note also states that the long-standing demand of the Joint Action Committee of various associations of the staff side of the Joint Consultative Mechanism for interim relief being granted, and 50 per cent of dearness allowance being merged with basic pay, be considered across the board.
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