8th Pay Commission: no new notice on its website since 21 September, and where the process stands

The Ministry of Finance (Department of Expenditure) constituted the Eighth Central Pay Commission by a resolution published in the Gazette of India on 3 November 2025, after the Union Cabinet approved its terms of reference on 28 October 2025. Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai is the chairperson, Prof Pulak Ghosh is the part-time member and Pankaj Jain is the member-secretary. The commission works from Delhi.

Under the terms of reference it examines pay, allowances and other benefits for these groups:

• Central government employees, both industrial and non-industrial
• Personnel of the All India Services
• Personnel of the Defence Forces
• Personnel of the Union Territories
• Officers and employees of the Indian Audit and Accounts Department
• Members of regulatory bodies set up under Acts of Parliament, excluding the Reserve Bank of India
• Officers and employees of the Supreme Court, and of High Courts whose expenditure is borne by the Union Territories
• Judicial officers of the subordinate courts in the Union Territories

State government employees are not on the list. The resolution says only that the commission must weigh how its recommendations would affect the finances of the state governments, which usually adopt central recommendations with changes. Pension is covered: the commission is told to review death-cum-retirement gratuity for staff under the National Pension System, including the Unified Pension Scheme, and the gratuity and pensions of those who are not.

The timetable so far

The resolution gives the commission 18 months from its constitution to make its recommendations, which falls on 3 May 2027. It adds that the commission may send interim reports on any matter once its recommendations on that matter are final. The Cabinet release also noted that pay commissions have been implemented at roughly ten-year intervals and that, on that pattern, the recommendations would normally be expected to take effect from 1 January 2026. That is a stated expectation, not a decided date.

The notices show how the work has been done. The commission announced visits to Hyderabad in May, to Srinagar and Ladakh in early June, to Lucknow in late June, to Bhubaneswar and Kolkata in July, to Jaipur, Chennai and Puducherry between late August and early September, and to Chandigarh in mid-September, with Delhi meetings in April, May and August. It also published guidelines for engaging consultants on 10 April, and a partial modification of them on 11 August.

The site also lists a questionnaire, a memorandum submission page, an online data portal and a link for appointments and meetings. The memorandum and questionnaire windows shown in the notices have closed. The commission's public visits continued through October.

What is still undecided

The resolution tells the commission what to weigh, and none of it is a number. It must consider the economic conditions of the country and the need for fiscal prudence, the need to leave enough resources for development and welfare spending, the unfunded cost of non-contributory pension schemes, the effect on state finances, and the pay and working conditions in public sector undertakings and the private sector.

Beyond pay, the commission has been asked to look at four things:

• How to attract talent and promote efficiency and accountability in government service
• The existing bonus schemes, with a view to an incentive scheme tied to productivity and performance
• The many allowances and the conditions for getting them, to rationalise them
• Gratuity and pension arrangements, as above

None of these has produced a published recommendation. Whatever the commission proposes will reach the government only with its report, and the resolution leaves the government to decide what to accept.

Claims that circulate online about a fixed fitment factor, a specific arrears amount or a date when new salaries begin do not appear in the Gazette resolution, the Cabinet release or the commission's notices. For anyone who wants to check, the commission's own website is the place: it carries the composition, the terms of reference as a PDF and every notice since January.

Employees and pensioners who wanted to put views to the commission should look at the memorandum page for any reopened window, and at the notices for city visits; the last announced one was Mumbai on 22 and 23 October. Associations and unions can request a meeting through the appointment link on the site. For anything else, no action is needed until the commission publishes its report or an interim report.