8th pay commission: Here’s how to apply for official state visits in Mumbai and Bengaluru

The 8th central pay commission (CPC) has announced official meetings and state visits as part of its consultation stage. According to notices on its official portal, the commission plans to discuss suggestions with employee unions, representatives, groups, pensioner associations, federations, and other stakeholders during its visits before releasing its official recommendations.

The panel’s decisions are expected to benefit more than 1 crore people, including around 50 lakh central government employees and nearly 65 lakh pensioners, and defence and railway personnel and retirees.

Since March, the commission has conducted multiple state visits to meet employee representative groups, unions and stakeholders to collect and analyse data before deciding on pay, allowances, and pensions for employees and pensioners.

How to apply for 8th CPC state visits in October

• Bengaluru — 7-8 October 2026: The 8th CPC will visit Bengaluru from 7-8 October (Wednesday-Thursday). Those seeking appointments had till 18 September to apply via the official portal.
• Mumbai — 22-23 October 2026: The 8th CPC will visit Mumbai from 22-23 October (Thursday-Friday). Deadline for appointments is 10 October. Notably, the Railway Ministry had earlier said the commission intends to visit railway departments under the Central Railway (CR) Zone in the city and seeks to gain firsthand experience of the workers and employees’ working conditions.

In Mumbai, the commission will host discussion meetings with employee unions, representative groups, pensioner associations, federations, and other stakeholders from Maharashtra who submit an appointment request on or before 10 October deadline, via the official portal here — https://8cpc.gov.in/

You can also access the application form directly here —

https://nicforms.nic.in/enRhYmxlNmFhYTQwYzY5YTg5NTIwMjYwOTE2MTQz

8th CPC: What is the timeline and process?

Former Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai is the Chair, and the panel includes Member-Secretary — Pankaj Jain, a former IAS officer, and Member of the Commission — Professor Pulak Ghosh, a tenured Professor of Finance and Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. Its official Terms of Reference (ToR) were released late last year.

The commission is examining changes that are desirable and feasible in the emoluments, including for pay (usually includes salary structure, pay matrix), allowances (usually include Dearness Allowance, Dearness Relief, HRA), and other facilities/benefits, in cash or kind (includes increment, promotions, etc.), having regard to rationalisation, contemporary functional requirements and specialised needs.

As per the timeline, the commission is likely to announce its recommendations within 18 months of the constitution (on 3 November 2025). This means February or April 2027 is the earliest we can get any official announcements on its decisions. But the absolute deadline to submit the report is May 2027.

Further, based on past trends, once the pay commission’s recommendations are made, the rollout takes another two to three years to complete. This means that hikes announced in 2027 may only be fully implemented by 2029 or 2030.