7th Pay Commission: Final draft on HRA, higher allowances today, will 30 per cent HRA get approval?

The JCM has requested the Cabinet Secretary to make the recommendations of the committee on allowances available to them.

The Empowered Committee of Secretaries that will take a final call on proposals on the HRA and allowances as per the 7th Pay Commission. The final draft on the proposals submitted by Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa led panel will finalised today. Following another meeting on June 1, the same would be submitted to the Union Cabinet for final approval.

The Central government employees' union has been pressing for house rent allowances in the range of 30 per cent, 20 per cent and 10 per cent of their basic salary.

Final draft today

The wait for the lakhs of central government employees is set to get over. The employees have been demanding higher allowances after a meagre pay hike was recommended by the 7th Pay Commission. The E-CoS is set to meet on June 1 as per the assurance given by the Cabinet Secretary. The meeting would be held during which several proposals and demands being made by the central government employees will be discussed. The final draft which will be readied today will also be part of the June 1 discussions following which the final approval of the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be sought.

What will be discussed today?

A panel headed by Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa had earlier proposed HRA in the range of 24 per cent, 16 per cent and 8 per cent of their basic pay for these central government employees. During the meeting increase in basic pay and arrears on revised allowances will be discussed today.

Central government employees had expressed their displeasure over the meagre hike and lower HRA. Measures would be taken to rectify this, sources say. Presently, there are as many as 196 allowances covered under the 6th Pay Commission, of which there was a recommendation to scrap 52 allowances from 7th Pay Commission which did not go down well with the employees.

Frustration building up

For the lakhs of central government employees it has been a frustrating wait. The inordinate delay in implementation of revised allowances under the Seventh Pay Commission has left Central government employees frustrated.

In a letter to Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha, the secretary of National Council (staff side) Joint Consultative Machinery said Central government employees were clueless about the recommendations of the Ashok Lavasa committee.

"The Committee on Allowances took longer time while finalising its recommendations, but it is a matter of deep regret that even after submission of the report by the said committee, the same has not been made available to the staff side (JCM), therefore we do not know what recommendations have been made by the said committee," said Shiv Gopal Mishra, secretary of staff side (JCM).

Make recommendations available

The JCM has requested the Cabinet Secretary to make the recommendations of the committee on allowances available to them. The JCM has made a strong demand that the government should implement revised allowances without further delay with effect from January 1, 2016.

Will E-CoS stick to 7th Pay Commission recommendations?

Meanwhile there are mixed reports that the committee would stick to the recommendations made by the pay panel. There are mixed reports that the E-CoS will stick to recommendations made by the pay panel. However sources in the Finance Ministry say that they should not believe reports and wait for the final announcement. The official said that the government is keen on addressing the concerns of the central government employees. In fact the final call will be taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has personally said that he wants the government employees to be happy.

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