Constituted by the Centre every 10 years to revise the allowances, pay and pensions of its employees, the Central Pay Commission (CPC) is responsible for decisions on contributions, retirement benefits and government spending. The 8th Central Pay Commission (CPC) is thus also set to make big decisions on salary hikes, dearness allowance, fitment factor and other allowances for central government employees.
Constituted by Prime Minister Narendra , the commission was announced in January last year, and its Terms of Reference (ToR) were issued in November. Since then, there has been much speculation over implementation of the salary hikes, arrears, amendments and proposed changes to pension structures.
As many as 50 lakh central government employees, including defence personnel, and around 65 lakh retired central government , including defence retirees will be impacted by the decisions. They could see basic salary rise to ₹51,480 from ₹18,000. Notably, there are 18 levels of employees, and the individual hikes will depend on the level of the employee or pensioner as basic pay of these employees differs from level to level.
Who is part of the 8th Pay Commission?
The current panel is the eight such constituted by the central government since Independence.
It is chaired by former Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Prakash . She joined the legal profession on 30 July 1973 and was elevated as am SC judge on 13 September 2011. Prior to her appointment to the CPC, Justice Desai served as the Chairperson of the Press Council of India till 16 December 2025.
Other members on the are Professor Pulak Ghosh, tenured Professor of Finance, Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, as a Member of the Commission and Pankaj Jain, former IAS, as Member-Secretary.
What is the CPC’s role in DA, fitment factor and other allowances?
The panel gathers views and inputs from employee unions, labour groups, ministries, pension bodies and other similar stakeholders, which will then be analysed to decide allowances, pension formula and structures for the relevant employee and retiree groups.
Discussions and from stakeholders are also solicited before the Commission provides its final recommendations. Notably, it opened formal memorandum submissions and scheduled stakeholder consultations in March and April 2026. The CPC in a statement last week also said that it will hold more meetings in the national capital and in other states and union territories “in due course” over the next months.
How long does it take from recommendations to be implemented?
The was notified on 17 January 2025 and scheduled to come into force by 1 January 2026. However, final recommendations are still pending.
Notably, when we use the previous pay commission timelines as reference, the process is a lengthy one. The took two and a half years from formation to rollout, and the 6th Pay Commission took two years; while the 5th Pay Commission took three and a half years to be implemented.
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