7th Pay Commission: Crucial meet to finalise new allowance structure for central govt employees today

The Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS) will hold a key meeting on Thursday to finalise the new allowance structure for the central government employees, ending the suspense. The suggested modifications will be screened in the meeting. A decision on the review report submitted by Committee on Allowances led by Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa will be taken in the meeting.

Last week, the Cabinet Secretary had assured that on June 1, the E-CoS will positively discuss the Lavasa Commitee report. Later, the report will be submitted to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who will present it before the Union Cabinet. 

The Lavasa Committee recommendations suggest changes in allowance structure of central government employees that has been proposed by the 7th Central Pay Commission.

House Rent Allowance (HRA) is one of the crucial topics that will be discussed during this meeting. According to the recommendations by the Commission, the HRA rates should be reduced to 24 per cent, 16 per cent and 8 per cent depending upon the pay and position of the employees. 

Also, It had suggested to revise HRA rates 27 per cent, 18 per cent and 9 per cent in case the DA crosses 50 per cent. It had advised that the HRA should be further raised to 30 per cent, 20 per cent and 10 per cent if DA crosses 100 per cent.

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The central government employees are demanding HRA to be at 30 per cent, 20 per cent and 10 per cent of their basic pay. "HRA rates have never been decreased by any of the previous pay commissions if they have not been increased," noted a central government employee union official.

The Pay Commission had recommended scrapping of 52 out of 196 allowances and suggested that 36 allowances should be subsumed under other existing allowances.