After submitting the report, the Commission Chairman justice B N Srikrishna had said the average increase in salaries would work out to be 40 per cent over the Fifth Pay Commission award.

The government had merged 50 per cent of the Dearness Allowance (DA) with the basic pay with effect from January 1, 2004.

This accordingly puts the basic pay at much higher level than that was provided in the Fifth Pay Commission and the effective increase over that level is 28 per cent, a top Commission official said.

The government increase the DA of its employees every six months to compensate them for rising cost of living.

Among other things, the Sixth Pay Commission has also suggested that the government should revise the base year of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for computation of DA “as frequently as feasible”.