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Key highlights: 7th Pay Commission allowances finally get government nod
The Union Cabinet has approved the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission on allowances for Central government employees.
New Delhi: The Union Cabinet has approved the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission on allowances for Central government employees.
With this, the ruling government is almost set to implement the revised allowance structure from July.
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Following are highlights of the approval given by the Cabinet to the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) on allowances with some modifications.
1. In June last year, the Narendra Modi Cabinet approved the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission which led to a 14.27 hike in basic pay.
2. On allowances, the Seventh Pay Commission recommended doing away with 53 of the 196 allowances for Central government employees and merging another 36 allowances.
3. The pay commission also suggested reducing the House Rent Allowance (HRA) rates for government employees by 2-6 per cent for X, Y, Z cities. For metros, it suggested bringing down the HRA from 30 per cent to 24 per cent.
4. Government employees, who were already disappointed with the basic pay hike, protested against the Seventh Pay Commission's recommendations on allowances.
5. The Modi government formed a committee under Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa in July last year to review the recommendations on allowances.
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6. The Ashok Lavasa committee, after several extended deadlines, submitted its review report to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on April 27.
7. The Lavasa report was first sent to the Department of Expenditure for a round of screening. Subsequently, the report was presented to the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS).
8. The Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS) met on June 1 to discuss the Ashok Lavasa panel's report and then forwarded the same to the Union cabinet.
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9. Existing rates of Special Allowance for Child Care for Women with Disabilities has been doubled from Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,000 per month.
10. Special Incident/ Investigation/ Security Allowance has been rationalised. The rates for Special Protection Group (SPG) have been revised to 55 per cent and 27.5 per cent of basic pay for operational and non-operational duties, respectively. (With Agency inputs)