7th Pay Commission: Central government employees likely to get revised allowances from July

7th Pay Commission: Central government employees likely to get revised allowances from July

Central government employees may start getting revised allowances under the Seventh Pay Commission from July

For nearly 50 lakh government employees, the wait for allowances has been particularly long considering the pay commission's recommendations were cleared by the Narendra Modi cabinet in June last year.

Allowances, and specifically the reduction in House Rent Allowance (HRA), by the Seventh Pay Commission had irked Central government employees.

A committee was formed under Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa to review the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission in July, and since then employees have been waiting to hear from the government on updates.

According to a Financial Express report, Central government employees are likely to get revised allowances, including HRA, from July.

HERE IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SEVENTH PAY COMMISSION AND THE ALLOWANCE STRUCTURE:

It was earlier reported that Union cabinet would take a decision on revised allowance structure at a meeting on June 7. There is ambiguity over whether the Modi cabinet took up the matter for discussion or not

After screening the Ashok Lavasa report on allowances, the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS) had forwarded the report along with its suggestions to the government after a June 1 meeting.

If reports are to be believed, the E-CoS has capped House Rent Allowance (HRA) rates at 25-27 per cent. The final call, however, will be taken by the Union cabinet.

The Seventh Pay Commission recommended a 14.27 per cent hike in basic pay for Central government employees, which is the lowest in 70 years.

The pay commission recommended doing away with 53 of the 196 allowances that Central government employees get besides subsuming 36 allowances into bigger ones.

The pay commission also recommended reducing the HRA rates for Central government employees depending on their type of cities. For metros, the Seventh Pay Commission suggested bringing the HRA down from 30 per cent to 24 per cent.

Such recommendations by the pay commission were met with strong opposition from Central government employees. The Narendra Modi government constituted a panel under Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa to review the recommendations.

After missing two deadlines, the Ashok Lavasa panel submitted its report to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on April 27. After submitting the report, Ashok Lavasa said the Committee on Allowances has taken into account the representations made by various stakeholders.

A day later, a statement was issued by the Finance Ministry on April 28 on Lavasa panel's report submission. It said that "modifications have been suggested in some allowances which are applicable universally to all Central government employees as well as certain other allowances which apply to specific employee categories".

The Ashok Lavasa report was first reviewed by the Department of Expenditure and then placed before the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS) for another round of screening.

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