8th Pay Commission: You may have to wait 3 years to avail the benefits of the 8th Pay Commission. Learn why there could be a delay..

The Union Cabinet has approved the 8th Pay Commission. However, central employees and pensioners may have to wait up to three years to receive their benefits. The government has approved the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the new pay panel, which will operate under the chairmanship of Justice Ranjan Prakash Desai.

The panel has been given 18 months to complete this work. This means the commission will likely submit its report to the government by April 2027. According to the Financial Express, government employees who wish to see the 8th Central Pay Commission's recommendations implemented quickly may need to exercise some patience. Given the experience of the previous two pay commissions, this process could drag on until 2028.

Timeline of the 6th Pay Commission
The 6th Pay Commission was announced in July 2006 during the UPA-1 government. The panel was formally constituted in October 2006, and its ToR was approved. The Commission submitted its report in March 2008, a period of 18 months. Approximately eight months after the report was submitted, the UPA-1 Cabinet approved the 6th Pay Commission report in August 2008. Thus, from the approval of the ToR to the Cabinet's approval, the panel's recommendations were implemented in approximately 22 months. However, its recommendations were deemed to have come into effect from January 1, 2006.

Timeline of the 7th Pay Commission
The 7th Pay Commission was announced in September 2013 during the UPA-2 government. The panel was constituted and the ToR was approved by the Union Cabinet in February 2014, approximately five months later. The 7th Pay Commission submitted its report in November 2015, a period of 18 months. The Narendra Modi-led NDA government approved its recommendations in June 2016. Overall, the period from the approval of the ToR to final implementation was approximately 28 months. Here, too, the recommendations were deemed to have come into effect from January 1, 2016.

Will the 8th Pay Commission also take time?
For the previous two Pay Commissions, the time between the approval of the ToR and the implementation of the recommendations has ranged from 22 to 28 months. Therefore, it is unlikely that the 8th Pay Commission (whose ToR has now been finalized in October 2025) will receive Cabinet approval before 2028. Even if all goes well, it could, at best, take until late 2027 or early 2028.

There have already been significant delays.
The 8th Pay Commission was announced on January 16, 2025, but its Terms and Conditions (ToR) took more than nine months to be approved and were only approved on October 28, 2025. According to the approved timeline, the Commission will have 18 months to complete its review and submit its report. This means that the likely deadline for submitting the report will be around April 2027.

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