7th Pay Commission: Will Committee on Allowances submit its report today?

The wait for higher allowances like Dearness Allowance (DA) and House Rent Allowance (HRA) for nearly 1 crore government employees and pensioners might be near its end as the Ashok Lavasa-led Committee on Allowances like likely to submit its report as part of the 7th Pay Commission to the Finance Ministry on Thursday. 

The cause of delay have been many but media reports said that the Committee on Allowances will submit its report on allowances to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley once he returns from his US visit on Thursday. 

The government has not given any official confirmation in this regards or a timeline for implementation of 7th Pay Commission reforms for allowances. 

Jaitley, in August 2016, formed  Ashok Lavasa committee to look into the demands of nearly 1 crore central government employees and pensioners for provisions of higher dearness and house rent allowances. 

Apart from allowances, the panel will be giving suggestions on House Rent Allowances to the government. Under the 7th Pay Commission, HRA should be paid at the rate of 24%, 16% and 8% of the new Basic Pay, depending on the type of cities. Employees' unions demanded HRA at 30, 20 and 10%. 

The 7th Pay Commission had recommended subsuming all allowances into one block but the finance minister deferred this decision and referred it to committee. 

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