NEW DELHI: Will the Centre lower the threshold for “creamy layer” for the OBCs which will bring them more easily in the income bracket that disqualifies them from availing the Mandal reservations?

As the government appears close to a decision on the report of an expert committee to review the criteria for determining the creamy layer, laid down in the 1993 Office Memorandum (OM) of the DoPT, it is learnt that the panel has made some crucial recommendations to “simplify” the said OM. One of them concerns the key “income criteria” to determine the creamy layer.

According to sources, it has been recommended that income criteria be made uniform for all groups by basing it on the Income Tax Act. It means inclusion of “salary” and “other sources” while keeping out “agri income”. If salary is included, it would put OBCs in the creamy layer bracket much easily — thereby putting them at a serious disadvantage. The issue has been a source of controversy for last six years since the government started including “salary” in the income of parents working in PSUs , while excluding it for those working in state and central governments. It has lowered the disqualifying bar for PSU households.

At the heart of the problem is the absence of “equivalence” of posts in PSUs — tagging posts as Group A/B/C/D as in Central/state governments. While ‘Group A’ falls in “creamy layer”, ‘Group B’ is eligible for quotas with caveats. In the absence of “equivalence”, the 1993 OM says “income criteria” will apply.

On complaints from successful UPSC candidates from PSU background who were denied quota, two HCs have termed the practice as “discriminatory”. However, it is learnt that government may stop short of any radical revision of the 1993 OM, which could be controversial. As an option to revising the income formula, the panel is learnt to have recommended “uniform criteria” for equivalence across three categories – government, PSU and private sector. In another recommendation, The panel is learnt to have suggested that income for creamy layer should be indexed. What it apparently means is that an objective parameter be set against which the income ceiling should be increased.

