In a decision that will bring cheers to over 10 lakh state government employees in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, the Left Front government has decided to accept the recommendations of its Fifth Pay Commission that had backed an upward revision of salaries of the government staff.

State Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta on Thursday announced the government’s decision to accept the recommendation that would inflate the state’s salary bill by 30 per cent.

The six-member commission, headed by former IAS officer S N Ghosh, took about five-and-a-half months to finalise its recommendations whereas the previous panel had taken two years and four months.

After a brief discussion with Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Ghosh said, “We should appreciate the commission’s speedy process to submit its report.”

Sources in the government said the announcement was significant for two reasons: First, the 10 lakh-odd employees of which 85 per cent belong to CPM-backed unions, are considered as the party’s election machinery. Second, since the central pay commission has already announced a pay hike, the CPM-backed unions were facing a threat of erosion in their support base. Over the past four months, a large number of employees joined the Opposition unions in various government offices, including at the Writers’ Buildings.

“The government has tried to keep the ruling party base intact among the employees through a faster implementation of the pay commission’s recommendations,” said an official in the personnel department.

According to the recommendations, Dasgupta claimed, the state pay structure is more attractive than that of the Central government employees. “The commission has tried to minimise pay discrepancies and as is the case at the Centre, the state will not abolish grade IV category,” the minister said.

But the commission, like the sixth Central pay commission, has asked the state government to introduce a system of pay band and grade pay in replacement of individual pay scales. Five pay bands, one each for all the posts now classified in groups D, C and B and two pay bands covering all posts in group A have been recommended.

He said the government will prepare its rules within 15 days. The employees will get the upgraded salary from April last. Benefits of revised pay structure will be given notional effect from January 1, 2006 and actual effect from April 1, 2008.

Apart from basic pay, the Commission has recommended a huge hike in all types of allowances like house rent, medical, and non-practising allowances.

Ghosh said the upper ceiling of house rent allowance has been increased from Rs 2,000 to Rs 6,000. The upper ceiling on non-practising allowance has also been increased to Rs 80,000 per month.