Gujarat government has formally cleared proposal of implementing recommendations of 7th Pay Commission, raising salaries of over 8.5 lakh state employees and pensioners.<br/><br/>The hike will cost more than eight thousand five hundred crore rupees extra financial burden annually to the exchequer.<br/><br/>The State Cabinet gave its approval to a proposal to implement the recommendations yesterday 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.