7th Pay Commission update: Central govt employees may get revised allowances from July 18

Key Highlights

• Government is likely to pay central government employees revised allowances from July 18.
• HRA is speculated to be higher than recommended rates by Committee on Allowances.
• Exchequer saved Rs 40,000 crore since January 1, 2016 due to the delay in disbursal of revised allowances.

Central government employees are likely to get revised allowance including higher House Rent Allowance (HRA) under the 7th Pay Commission from July 18 onward.
 
Over 52 lakh central government employees may start getting their revised allowances. The same would be implemented after the pay panel hiked salaries, a report by One India said on Saturday. 

The report further added that the exchequer saved Rs 40,000 crore since January 1, 2016 due to the delay in disbursal of revised allowances. However, the government is expected to pay compensate for the loss in employees’ salaries with this ‘generous HRA’ amount.

Earlier the Committee on Allowances headed by Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa had suggested capping HRA at 25%-27% as against demands of 30%.

To which the central government employees demanded that the HRA must be left unchanged at 30%, 20% and 10% depending on the city they live in.
 
The report suggested that the government will be ‘generous’ and give more HRA than the one recommended.

Also Read: RBI once again flags 7th Pay Commission implementation as inflation risk
 
An upcoming cabinet meeting on Monday is likely to discuss the hike in employees’ salary, for which demands have been made in the range of 157 to 178% HRA rates as per the 6th Pay Commission.