8th Pay Commission Update: Central Govt Employees' DA Expected To Be Reset To ZERO From...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 16 January 2026 approved setting up the 8th Pay Commission which will result in revision of salaries of nearly 50 lakh central government employees and allowances of 65 lakh pensioners.

 

The chairman and two members of the Commission will be appointed soon. The decision to set up the 8th Pay Commission was taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, I&B Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said. The 8th Central Pay Commission, once set up and recommendations are accepted, will impact the salary brackets of approximately 49 lakh government employees and 68 lakh pensioners. Vaishnaw said consultations will be held with central and state governments and other stakeholders.

The pay commission is usually implemented after a gap of 10 years. The 7th Pay Commission was constituted in 2014 and its recommendations were implemented on January 1, 2016. Since the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission was accepted in 2016, the next will be in effect in 2026.

Once the 8th Pay panel submits its recommendations, it has to key in two factors --the fitment factor that decides salary hike, and another being the DA factor which is most likely to be merged with the basic pay of the employees. In other words, when the pay commission submits its recommendation and if they are implemented before January, it is possible that the DA is merged into basic salary, thus resetting it to ZERO. In this case, the new DA will start from beginning. 

The current DA for central government employee is 53 percent. As per rules, DA is revised twice in a year --once in January and once in July. As has been officially announced, the tenure for the next pay commission i.e the 8th Pay Commission is January 2026. Hence in all probability, the pay panel's recommendation might merge the DA with basic salary. However, if the 8th pay panel's recommendation is not implemented before January 2026 and government announces another DA revision by then, the merging of DA and DR will be considered in retrospective adjustments.

When the 7th Pay Commission's recommendations were implemented in January 2016, the DA had reached 125 percent. DA was then merged with the basic pay, thus resetting the same to ZERO. If the same practice is followed under the 8th Pay Commission, the DA will be merged and reset to zero this time too.

 

The 7th Pay Commission had raised the Minimum pay to Rs 18,000 per month, maximum pay to Rs 2,50,000 per month. 7th Pay Commission also recommended a new pay matrix instead of grade pay system Focused on allowances and work-life balance. It included Over 10 million Beneficiaries (including pensioners)

 

The government has constituted seven pay commissions Since 1947. The pay commission has a key role in deciding salary structures, benefits and allowances for government employees and pensioners. As has been the convention, most of the state-owned organisations follow the commission's recommendations.