7th Pay Commission: AIS officers in Ladakh to receive 'special allowance'

The central government has announced monetary incentives for a section of its officers. This special allowance (monetary incentives) has been extended to central government officers belonging to North East cadre of the All India Service (AIS) officers who are stationed in the Union Territory of Ladakh.

"It has now been decided to extend the provisions of additional monetary incentives to the All India Service officers working in UT of Ladakh, subject to ceiling, and instructions issued in this regard from time to time," said Devendra Kumar, Under Secretary to Government of India, in a letter addressed to chief secretaries of all state governments, according to Zee Business.

Once implemented, AIS officers in Ladakh will receive an additional special allowance and special duty allowance. This will be payable at 20 per cent and 10 per cent of AIS officer's basic salary respectively.

Earlier the Narendra Modi-led government had announced the restoration of dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) benefits to its employees and pensioners, respectively, from July 1, 2021.

Currently, the DA for central government employees stands at 17 per cent as it had halted the promised 4 per cent hike till July 2021. The 4 per cent DA hike was expected in accordance with the formula which is based on recommendations from the 7th Central Pay Commission.

The dearness allowance hike came as a major relief for nearly 50 lakh employees and over 60 lakh pensioners. However, salary and pension recipients did not get the hiked DA as the Finance Ministry had decided to put a hold on it in April 2020 in order to deal with the COVID-19 crisis.

The Minister of State (MoS) for Finance Anurag Thakur had said earlier in a written reply to Rajya Sabha, "As and when the decision to release the future instalments of dearness allowance due from 01.07.2021 is taken, the rates of DA as effective from 01.01.2020, 01.07.2020 and 01.01. 2021 will be restored prospectively and will be subsumed in the cumulative revised rates effective from 01.07.2021."

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