The Sixth Pay Commission of Punjab has recommended to increase the salaries of all government employees by over two times and the minimum pay to be increased from Rs 6,950 to Rs 18,000 per month.

The Commission has recommended to implement the salary hike with retrospective effect from January 1, 2016.

The increment in salary is likely to cost an additional Rs 3,500 crore per annum from 2016, an official spokesperson of the Chief Minister's Office said, adding that the average increment in salaries and pensions is expected in the range of 20 percent, PTI reported.

The commission has proposed the government to revise all the allowances upward with rationalisation in some of them. The report was submitted to Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh recently and has now been forwarded to the finance department for a detailed study before it's placed before the cabinet this month. The department is expected to examine the various aspects as well as the impacts of the recommendations before submitting to the cabinet.

According to the spokesperson, the recommendations are likely to be implemented from July 1, 2021.

The Commission has also recommended a significant hike in pensions and dearness allowances and death-cum-retirement gratuity limit to be increased from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh.

The commission has also recommended medical allowance to be doubled to Rs 1,000 for employees as well as pensioners. Increase in ex-gratia grant rates in the case of death of a government employee where death is directly attributable to the duty performed, the Commission suggested, according to the report.

The commission has recommended the introduction of several new allowance categories including higher education allowance in the form of lump-sum rate for all employees acquiring higher qualifications.

The sixth pay commission report containing recommendations comes at a time when almost all major states are economically stressed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

(With inputs from PTI)