The recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission on salary hike for government employees may not be able to stop IAS officers from leaving their coveted service to join the corporate sector. Many IAS officers are expecting not more than 30 to 35% hike in gross salary, which they say, would not be enough for them to continue in the service, sources close to the development told SundayET.
The Sixth Pay Commission will submit its recommendations next month, and the pay hike will be effective from January 1, 2006. The government is, however, banking on the forthcoming pay commission’s recommendations on salary hike to improve retention in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) among other central services.
Satyananda Mishra, secretary, ministry of personnel, hoped that the retention in the service would increase once the forthcoming pay commissions recommendations are implemented.
“The number of officers who have put in their resignations is not so large as to be a matter of great concern for the government. The pay commission is looking into the issue of incentives to the government servants, which should improve the retention in the service,” the secretary said.
In fact, many not-so-happy IAS officers, mostly at the level of directors and joint secretaries in the Central government, have been waiting for the right opportunities.
“Even after the pay commission, the wide disparity between the pay package of a top private sector executive and a senior government official will remain. I feel, more and more officials will join the corporate sector in coming years,” said a serving IAS on the condition of anonymity.
Whereas the performance-based variable pay-outs are likely to be introduced for the first time in the government, the government has already worked out a few initiatives to make the IAS and other central services officers happy.
In fact, the All India Services (performance appraisal) rules, 2007, was notified mainly to motivate good officers, and to ensure that better performance or lack of performance gets fairly reflected. “It will establish a more clearly defined linkage between the performance appraisal system and the experience of officers,” said the secretary.