7th Pay Commission: Rs 30,748 crore to go on central govt employees' allowances every year

7th Pay Commission: Rs 30,748 crore to go on central govt employees' allowances every year

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission with 34 modifications that will increase the allowances further for the 48 lakh employees of the Central government.

Mail Today Bureau
  • New Delhi,
  • Jun 29, 2017,
  • Updated Jun 29, 2017, 9:11 AM IST

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission with 34 modifications that will increase the allowances further for the 48 lakh employees of the Central government.

The increased allowances, which comes into effect from July 1, 2017, is based on the recommendations of the Committee on Allowances (CoA) . The allowances as recommended by the 7th Central Pay Commission would have cost the exchequer Rs 29,300 crore.

The modified allowances approved by the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will increase the burden by Rs 1,448 crore to Rs 30,748 crore per annum.

Briefing the media after the Cabinet meeting, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the modifications are based on suggestions made by the CoA in its report submitted to the Finance Minister on April 27, and the Empowered Committee of Secrecomretaries set up to screen the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission.

The 7th Pay Commission suggested abolition of 53 allowances. Of these, the government decided not to do away with 12 allowance, he said. This will benefit over one lakh employees belonging to specific categories in railways, posts, defence and scientific departments.

The modifications approved on Wednesday were finalised by the Empowered Committee of Secretaries based on the recommendations of the CoA, he said. The CoA had undertaken extensive stakeholder consultations before finalising its recommendations.

Jaitley said the Pay Commission had recommended reduction in the HRA rates to 24 per cent for X, 16 per cent for Y and 8 per cent for Z category of cities.

As the HRA at the reduced rates may not be sufficient for employees falling in lower pay bracket, it has been decided that HRA will not be less than Rs 5400, Rs 3600 and Rs 1800 for X, Y and Z category of cities respectively. This floor rate has been calculated at 30 per cent, 20 per cent and 10 per cent of the minimum pay of Rs 18,000.

This will benefit more than 7.5 lakh 1 to 3 levels of employees, he said. House Rent Allowance (HRA) is currently paid at 30 per cent for X (population of 50 lakh and above), 20 per cent for Y (5-50 lakh) and 10 per cent for Z (below 5 lakh) category of cities. With regard to defence forces, he said ration allowances will be directly credited to their accounts.

Talking about Siachen allowance, he said level 9 and above will get Rs 42,500 as compared to Rs 31,500 recommended by Pay Commission. For level 8 and below it would be Rs 30,000 against Rs 21,000 recommended by the Pay Commission.

Additional allowances has been restructured, the government has doubled medical allowance for pensioners to Rs 1,000. However, the Pay Commission had recommended Rs 500 as medical allowance for pensioners, he said.

Talking about dress allowance, he said various types of allowances are paid at present for provisioning and maintenance of uniforms/outfits such as Washing Allowance, Uniform Allowance, Kit Maintenance Allowance and Outfit Allowance. These have been rationalised and subsumed in newly proposed Dress Allowance to be paid annually in four slabs.

Read more!
RECOMMENDED