Business
8th Pay Commission Delay: Govt Staff May Have To Wait Until 2028 For Salary Hike
New Delhi: In January this year, the Modi government announced the formation of the 8th Central Pay Commission. This commission, set up once every 10 years, reviews and revises salaries, pensions, and allowances of central government employees and pensioners.
However, even after seven months, there has been no real progress. The Terms of Reference (ToR), which outline the commission’s scope, are still not ready. Also, the members and chairman have not yet been appointed. This delay has worried over 1 crore central employees and pensioners. Their unions have written to the government asking for updates. The Finance Ministry has said it is gathering inputs from states, ministries, and employee groups before issuing the formal notification.
What Happened with the 7th Pay Commission?
Looking back, the 7th Pay Commission took almost 3 years from its announcement to the implementation of its recommendations.
Announcement: 25 September 2013 (UPA government)
ToR Notification: 28 February 2014 (5 months later)
Appointment of Members: 4 March 2014 (just 4 days after ToR)
Report Submission: 19 November 2015 (after 1 year 8 months)
Implementation: 29 June 2016 (7 months after report submission, effective from 1 January 2016)
So, the full process took about 2 years and 9 months.
What This Means for the 8th Pay Commission
The 8th Pay Commission was announced on 16 January 2025. If it follows the same pace as the 7th Commission, the final implementation may not happen before late 2027 or early 2028.
So far:
The announcement has been made.
The Staff Side of NC-JCM (a platform for government-employee dialogue) has given draft proposals with demands.
But the ToR and appointments are still pending.
If the government issues the ToR by August 2025, and the process follows the 7th Commission’s timeline, then recommendations may only be implemented by January 2028.
Even if the implementation happens late, the salary and pension revisions will be retrospective from 1 January 2026.
The Eli Lilly logo appears on the company’s office in San Diego, California, U.S., Nov. 21, 2025.
Mike Blake | Reuters
Eli Lilly on Monday said it is lowering the cash prices of single-dose vials of its blockbuster weight loss drug Zepbound on its direct-to-consumer platform, LillyDirect, building on efforts by the company and the Trump administration to make the medicine more accessible.
The announcement also comes weeks after chief rival Novo Nordisk unveiled additional discounts on the cash prices of its obesity and diabetes drugs.
Starting Monday, cash-paying patients with a valid prescription can get the starting dose of Zepbound vials for as low as $299 per month on LillyDirect, down from a previous price of $349 per month. They can also access the next dose, 5 milligrams, for $399 per month and all other doses for $449 per month, down from $499 per month across those sizes.
Zepbound carries a list price of roughly $1,086 per month. That price point, and spotty insurance coverage for weight loss drugs in the U.S., have been significant barriers to access for some patients.
Eli Lilly’s announcement comes just weeks after President Donald Trump inked deals with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to make their GLP-1 drugs easier for Americans to get and afford. The agreements will cut the prices the government pays for the drugs, introduce Medicare coverage of obesity drugs for the first time for certain patients and offer discounted medicines on the government’s new direct-to-consumer website launching in January, TrumpRx.
But Eli Lilly’s deal with Trump centers around lowering the prices of a different form of Zepbound – a multi-dose pen – after it wins Food and Drug Administration approval.
That means Eli Lilly’s Monday announcement around cutting prices on the existing single-dose vials could allow more patients to get discounted treatments more quickly.
“We will keep working to provide more options — expanding choices for delivery devices and creating new pathways for access — so more people can get the medicines they need,” said Ilya Yuffa, president of Lilly USA and global customer capabilities, in a statement.
Eli Lilly’s stock, which has climbed more than 36% this year, fell nearly 2% on Monday. Its meteoric rise due to the success of Zepbound and its diabetes injection Mounjaro vaulted it to becoming the first health-care company to hit a $1 trillion market value last month. Though cutting prices means lower revenue per medication sold, Eli Lilly’s sales — and shares — have continued to soar through past pricing announcements as demand balloons.
With single-dose vials, patients need to use a syringe and needle to draw up the medicine and inject it into themselves. Eli Lilly first introduced that form of Zepbound in August 2024.
It’s unclear how many patients are currently using single-dose vials of Zepbound. But Eli Lilly previously said that direct-to-consumer sales now account for more than a third of new prescriptions of Zepbound.
Novo Nordisk earlier this month lowered the price of its obesity drug Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic for existing cash-paying patients to $349 per month from $499 per month. That excludes the highest dose of Ozempic.
The company also launched a temporary introductory offer, which will allow new cash-paying patients to access the two lowest doses of Wegovy and Ozempic for $199 per month for the first two months of treatment.
The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has approved a fresh increase in the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), raising the cost for both domestic consumers and commercial users.
According to the notification issued, the LPG price has been increased by Rs7.39 per kilogram, setting the new rate at Rs209 per kg for December. As a result, the price of a domestic LPG cylinder has risen by Rs87.21, bringing the new price to Rs2,466.10.
In November, the price of LPG stood at Rs201 per kg, while the domestic cylinder was priced at Rs2,378.89.
The latest price hike is expected to put additional pressure on households already grappling with rising living costs nationwide.
New Delhi: The taxable value of all supplies under GST surged by a robust 15 per cent during September-October this year, compared to the same period in 2024 due to sharp increase in consumption triggered by the tax rate cuts on goods across sectors that kicked in from September 22, according to official sources.
The growth in the same two-month period last year was 8.6 per cent. “This surge in taxable value during ‘Bachat Utsav’ demonstrates strong consumption uplift, stimulated by reduced rates and improved compliance behaviour,” a senior official said.
He pointed out that the growth has especially been strong in sectors where rate rationalisation was implemented, such as FMCG, pharma goods, food products, automobiles, medical devices and textiles. In these sectors, the taxable value of supplies has seen significantly higher growth, confirming that lower GST rates translated directly into higher consumer spending.
“It vindicates our strategy that reducing rates on essentials and mass-use sectors would create demand-side buoyancy — a Laffer Curve–type demand uplift,” he explained.These trends confirm that GST next-gen reforms have not disrupted revenue stability, and that consumption-side buoyancy has begun to translate into higher taxable value in key sectors.
This growth is in value terms which means that since GST rates were lower, the growth in volume terms will be even higher. It is clearly visible that while the Next Gen Reforms resulted in significant Bachat — increased consumption, industry has been very proactive in passing on the GST savings to the final consumers and ensuring that there is no supply side deficiency.
As GDP private consumption data will be released much later, GST taxable value serves as the most reliable real-time proxy for consumption, and the current numbers clearly indicate sustained demand expansion, the official added.
Eli Lilly cuts cash prices of Zepbound weight loss drug vials on direct-to-consumer site
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