7th Pay Commission: Central govt employees may receive revised allowance in April

Seventh Pay Commission panel that reviews allowances, headed by Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa, is likely to submit its revised report to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley by next month, a report said. 

Apart from Holi mood, giving one more reason to central government employees, the Centre is expected to make official announcement on the allowances soon after the State assembly elections get over. The last day of state polls is March 11, as reported by Hindu Business Line. 

Hence, the revised allowances are expected to be effective from April 1. 

As per the report, the panel has recommended that the rate of house rent allowance to be revised and allow higher allowance in order to balance higher cost of living. 

Moreover, NDTV report had said that the 7th Pay commission had recommended that HRA be revised to 27%, 18% and 9% respectively when Dearness Allowance (DA) crosses 50%. While the rates should be revised to 30%, 20% and 10% when DA crosses 100%. 

Quoting a senior official, The Hindu report added that the impact of revised and higher allowances has already been added in the the Union Budget 2017-18. This has increased the allocation for allowances by 7%. 

Reportedly, the 7th Pay Commission had examined 196 existing allowances. It had recommended abolition of 51 allowances and subsuming of 37 allowances.

Last year in June, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had approved the much-awaited 7th Pay Commission recommendations.