Cabinet Approves Bonus For Central Employees, Over 30 Lakh To Benefit

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the immediate disbursal of Rs 3,737 crore of bonus and non-productivity linked bonus to 30 lakh central government employees within a week, which the government said will boost demand in the festive season.

Announcing the decision, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said at least 30 lakh non-gazetted employees will benefit from the announcement and the bonus will be disbursed in one instalment before Vijaya Dashami.

The beneficiaries include 17 lakh non-gazetted employees from government’s commercial establishments such as railways, post office, EPFO, ESIC and production and their share will be Rs 2,791 crore. The rest 13 lakh government employees will get non-productivity link bonus of Rs 946 crore. Javadekar said this money in the hands of the middle class will push demand in the market.

Two major railway workers associations had warned of blocking rail movement if their demand for release of productivity-linked bonus was not met before the Durga Puja.

Last week, the government had announced leave travel concession (LTC) cash voucher scheme. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced additional allocation of Rs 37,000 crore towards capital expenditure, and put money into the pockets of employees ahead of the festival season, hoping to trigger demand of Rs 1 lakh crore.