A big day for 47 lakh central government employees is going to start from1st July as Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Cabinet Committee today approved recommendations on HRA and other allowances for 7th Pay Commission. Narendra Modi returned home on Wednesday morning from foreign visit only after concluding his 3-nation tour of the USA, Portugal, and the Netherlands. The meeting took place to take up the proposal to hike in HRA and other allowances with respect to 7th Pay Commission. All the employees who are connected to this 7th Pay Commission benefits were keeping a close eye to know what transpires in the Cabinet meet in terms of their allowances.
HRA for all the central govt. employees will be paid at the rate of 24 %, 16 % and 8 % of new basic pay. HRA will not be less than Rs. 5,400, Rs. 3,600 and Rs. 1,800, which is calculated at 30 %, 20 % and 10% of the minimum pay of Rs. 18,000. And obviously, this revised HRA will benefit more than seven lakh Central government employees.
This 7th pay commission also recommended that the rate of HRA be revised to 27 %, 18 %, and 9 % when Dearness Allowance (DA) crosses 50 %, and further revised to 30 %, 20 %, and 10 % when it crosses 100 %. Now, the government decided to revise rates when Dearness Allowance crosses 25 % and 50 % respectively.
In this revision, certain modifications in the recommendations of 7th Pay Commission on pay and pensionary benefits in the course of their implementation were on the discussion. The Union Cabinet chaired by the PM Modi had earlier approved 2 important recommendations impacting the Defense Forces in the country. The medical allowances have been doubled for pensioners, to one thousand, compared to five hundred rupees earlier. Constant-attendance allowance on 100 % disablement increased from Rs. 4,500 to Rs. 6,750. All the Central Government employees now have the real reason to smile! It’s a big gift from Prime Minister Modi to all the Central government employees.
The committee had already approved the modifications in the recommendations of the 7th pay commission recommendations relating to the method of revision of pension of pre-2016 pensioners and all the family pensioners. The recommendations were based on the suggestion made by the Committee chaired by Pension Secretary constituted with the approval.
This modified formulation of revision approved by the Cabinet will entail an additional benefit to the pensioners but it has added an additional expenditure of more than five thousand crores for 2016-17 over and above the expenditure already incurred in the revision of pension as per the second formulation. But obviously, it will benefit more than 55 lakh pre-2016 civil and defense pensioners and all the family pensioners.
