7th Pay Commission: Lavasa panel to finalise allowance only after April 12

The central government employees may have to wait more to get higher allowance under 7th Pay Commission. The revised allowance likely to be announced after April 12, when the ongoing Budget session of Parliament will end, a media report said.

The last meeting which was held on Wednesday by Committee on Allowances headed by Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa lasted for more than three hours. The panel is on the verge of giving final touches to the allowances in accordance with the 7th Pay Commission committee recommendations, a Moneycontrol report said. 

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Lavasa panel was formed last year to examine the 7th pay Commission recommendations.

On Wednesday, the panel had stated that it will finalise the report after receiving comments from ministries on treatment of 14 allowances and benefits. 

These allowances include accidental allowance, outstation detention allowance, trip allowance, and ghat allowance, the report added. However, to come out with the final report, the committee will hold another meeting, as reported by PTI. 

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The government had planned to give out the revised higher allowance under the 7th Pay Commission from the beginning of new financial year but "will take a call on payment of arrears in case the rollout is delayed", the report said quoting the source. 

Lavasa panel was appointed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in June last year to examine the suggestions on allowances under the 7th Pay Commission and other recommendations that included a change in the present system of accounting, wherein pay and allowances are clubbed and it would be difficult to bifurcate these.

Out of 196 allowances, the 7th Pay Commission report had recommended abolition of 52 and subsuming of another 36 into larger existing ones. 

In the next meeting, the committee will also finalise its views on reducing the house rent allowance (HRA) to 24%, 16% and 8% of the new Basic Pay, depending on the type of cities as against HRA at 30, 20 and 10%.