7th Pay Commission – Don’t expect any big changes in Allowances, Central Govt. Staff may face dissappointment.
New Delhi: The Committee on Allowances
has made only minor changes to allowances on the recommendation of the
7th Pay Commission for the central government employees.
The committee has also dittoed the pay
commission recommendation of house rent allowance (HRA) of 24, 16 and 8
per cent respectively, instead of the present rate of HRA — of 30, 20
and 10 per cent of basic pay.
A top Finance Ministry official, who did
not wish to be named told us after receiving the Committee on
Allowances report from Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa, who led the
committee, the report is being currently examined by the Department of
Expenditure.
The 7th Pay Commission, led by Justice A
K Mathur, earlier proposed abolition of 52 allowances and subsuming of
another 36 allowances into larger existing ones out of total 196
allowances, which triggered resentment among central government
employees that government complied with formation of the Committee on
Allowances.
The Committee on Allowances was
constituted in June last year after the government gave nod the
recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission from January 1, 2016 in respect
of basic pay and dearness allowances.
The Committee on Allowances in its
report agreed with the pay commission’s recommendation for reducing
house rent allowance (HRA) and made minor changes in little allowances
for central government employees, the Finance Ministry official told us.
The recommendations of allowances would
be finalised by May or June after examining by the empowered committee
of secretaries and following that it will be placed before the Cabinet
by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, he said.
No matter when the recommendations are
finalised, the new allowances will be made effective from January 1 last
year, the official asserted.
