Committee On Allowances Makes Minor Changes To Allowances

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.