this story originally appeared in on nov 27 2012 bangaloremumbai in the next few weeks business and talent managers in india inc will get into huddles to squeeze out increment budgets for their firms for 2013 but early signals tracked by at least two hr agencies suggest the continuing economic lethargy will result in employees taking home pay hikes that may be less than 2012 levels investments have been slow projects are on back burners and business is a challenge while the mean for this years increment was 1012 per cent it will be a mere 89 per cent in the next one says ganesh shermon kpmg india partner and country head human capital salary increments in 2013 are expected to be 106 per cent on an average across sectors a marginal drop compared to an 11 per cent raise in 2012 says anandorup ghose practice head for executive compensation and corporate governance at consulting firm aon hewitt if these forecasts come true increments next march may be the lowest in four years the worst year though was 2009 when hikes were just 66 per cent kpmgs shermon said some companies may increase bonus component in salaries but will reduce any form of guaranteed payments increments in infrastructure it real estate and manufacturing will be less than last year while bfsi pharma retail and telecom will see marginal increases the government has taken some positive decisions but it is too early to gauge when things will improve increments may be on a par with 2012 when it ranged between 575 per cent or even lesser says adil malia group president hr essar group people are still evaluating how the markets will turn but firms do not fear that talent will be upset with lower hikes employees are well aware of the economic situation so they are mindful that it will impact industry as well malia adds the it sector is expected to lay low in the new year as well and make its performance rating systems more competitive the increments will be around 6 per cent for the it sector and we will not give a standard raise anymore said the hr head of a midtier it company he did not wish to be named therefore only if someone gets a rating of 3 and above on a scale of 1 to 5 will heshe get an increment in the coming year he added given the cautious overall environment even companies that have outperformed the market are taking it easy panasonic with a 40 per centplus revenue growth over last year is planning to pay out average increments of 1213 per cent on an average in the upcoming appraisals as compared to an average of 15 per cent in 2012 says prashant deo singh head hr general affairs panasonic india over the past 23 years we have benchmarked ourselves against competition in 2013 most companies in our sector will be paying out increments in this range since we have