Gujarat government has approved the implementation of the recommendations of 7th Pay Commission, raising salaries of over 8.5 lakh state employees and pensioners. <br/>The hike will cost 8,513 crore rupees annually to the exchequer.<br/><br/>The Cabinet gave its approval to a proposal to implement the recommendations on Tuesday at a meeting in Gandhinagar chaired by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.<br/><br/>Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel told reporters after the meeting that the pay scale would come into effect from 1st of January this year though the actual implementation would start from 1st of August.<br/><br/>For pensioners, the actual implementation would commence from 1st of October. <br/><br/>An official release said, over 4.65 lakh Gujarat government employees and more than 4.12 lakh pensioners will benefit from the new pay structure. <br/><br/>To address the issues related to disbursement of arrears from January to August as well as fixation of new rates of allowances, the government has constituted a committee of senior bureaucrats under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary J N Singh. <br/><br/>The announcement to implement the new pay scales was made by then Chief Minister Anandiben Patel on 31st July, just a day before she expressed her desire to step down. <br/><br/>AIR correspondent reports, Gujarat Government has announced to give 7th Pay Commission benefits to the state government employees with retrospective effect from 1st January 2016. <br/><br/>Around 9 lakh state government employees and pensioners will get the benefit of this decision. <br/><br/>This was announced by Dy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, who is also holding the charge of Finance Ministry. <br/><br/>The benefits of the pay commission will start from the August salary, while the arrears from 1st January will be paid in phase manner on the bases of recommendations of the secretaries' committee made for this purpose. <br/>This decision was taken in a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani. <br/><br/>The decision will create additional burden of more than 8 thousand crore per annum on the state exchequer.