The 8th central pay commission may not see the light of the day as the government is evaluating a proposal to dispense with the system of the pay commission. Depending on the outcome of the evaluation exercise, it may instead follow the Aykroyd formula to fix the salaries of Central Government employees.

What's the Aykroyd formula? Simply stated, it provides for annual salary increases based on inflation. The government may also like to link the annual salary increases under the formula on the performance of employees.

It may be noted that the NaMo administration has already made public its displeasure with the sloppy performance of public servant. Indeed, it dismissed 1,083 lower-level employees from government service for inefficiency during the last five years, according to information tabled in Parliament.

Further, 7th CPC chief, Justice AK Mathur, had also favored the idea of dispensing with the system of pay commission and follow instead a system of yearly changes to salaries on the basis of the inflation index.