THURSDAY, August 14, (News Locale) - As expected the Indian Cabinet today gave a go ahead to recommendations contained within the Sixth Pay Commission report. The green signal means a 21% hike in the salaries of civil servants, armed forces and paramilitary personnel. 

The meeting that approved the Sixth Pay Commission report was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A K Antony and Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting Priyaranjan Dasmunshi announced the approval for the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations and said they would be effective from January, 2006. The government will pay 40% of arrears in salaries in the year 2008-09 and the remaining 60% in the next fiscal year.

One of the major features is that the report calls for total emoluments of a government employee including allowances at the lowest level to be in excess of at least Rs 10,000 per month.

This move is estimated to cost the Exchequer at least Rs 22,131 crore this year. Of this Rs 15,717 crore will be on the General Budget and Rs 6,414 crore on the Railway Budget.

The implementation of the recommendations will start from the next month and see a rise of 3% in basic pay on an annual basis as opposed to the recommended 2.5%.

The defense forces have been well-represented in the Sixth Pay Commission report. Mid-level defence personal will now get a higher pay scale, while paramilitary and defence personnel will get more allowances.

Government doctors have also been covered and can be made joint secretary if they have a service record of two decades.

The adoption of the recommendations means at least 5 million central government employees have received a bonanza on the eve of the country's 62nd Independence Day.