The wait for Central government employees over revised allowances under the Seventh Pay Commission may end soon.

HERE IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE STATUS OF ALLOWANCES UNDER SEVENTH PAY COMMISSION:

1. House Rent Allowance (HRA), arrears on revised allowances and a hike in basic pay are likely to be taken up at the meeting between senior government officials and employee representatives.
2. After Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa submitted the report to Arun Jaitley, it will be examined by the Department of Expenditure and then the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS). Finally, it will be tabled in front of the Union cabinet for approval.
3. In its report, the Ashok Lavasa-led Committee on Allowances suggested some modifications to allowances applicable to all Central government employees. Some other modifications suggested by the Lavasa committee will be applicable to only certain categories, a Finance Ministry statement had earlier said.
4. A committee under Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa was constituted in July last year following protests by government employees over the Seventh Pay Commission’s recommendations on allowances.
5. The Seventh Pay Commission recommended doing away with 52 of the 196 allowances that Central government employees get, and suggested subsuming another 36 existing allowances into larger ones.
6. Another Seventh Pay Commission recommendation was to reduce the HRA for Central government employees. The panel suggested bringing down the HRA by 2-6 per cent for all employees depending on categories of cities. The suggestion did not go down well with Central government employees.
7. The Ashok Lavasa committee was given a deadline of four months to submit the report, which was later extended to February 22 this year. The committee, however, managed to submit the report to the government on April 27.
8. The report by the Committee on Allowances was submitted after discussions with various government departments, ministries and representatives of Central government employees.
9. Various reports have suggested that the Lavasa committee is expected to take a favourable view on allowances such as the HRA, keeping in mind the concerns of Central government employees.