7th Pay Commission: Government employees to get good news, house rent allowance (HRA) likely to be hiked

7th Pay Commission: The Central Government has removed the confusion related to HRA (Housing Rent Allowance) issued to the government employees. The govt has issued a circular to all the departments that states that the special exemption given to employees from a particular city will be continued. However, in case any city has had an updgradation on the basis of population, the HRA of employees from such city will be increased.

Central Government revises 7th Pay Commission HRA

Former President, AG Office Brotherhood, Allahabad and Assistant Secretary General of All India Audit and Accounts Association, Harishankar Tiwari told Zee Business Online that the Central Government has revised the HRA after implementing 7th Pay commission. There were 3 categories - X, Y and Z created for this. The X category include cities with population of more than Rs 50 lakhs, and the government servants living here are getting a maxiumum of 24% HRA per month. While in the Y category cities, the HRA is 16 percent and the Z category holds 8% HRA.

7th Pay Commission based Upgradation by population

According to the circular issued by the Finance Ministry, if a city has been upgraded on the basis of its population, the HRA will of the government employee living here will be increased. Harishankar Tiwari said that if a city's population is more than 5 lakh, such city will be come into Y category from the Z category and will start seeing 16% HRA instead of 8%.

3 categories for cities as per 7th Pay Commission

Tiwari also said that the categories of cities for 7th Pay Commission based HRA have been decided on the basis of census 2011. However, the government also makes upgradation of the cities based on the report of their agencies. The same thing has been mentioned in the circular issued by the Finance Ministry.