7th Pay Commission: Recommendations on allowances to be proposed this month in 10 days?

Committee on Allowances, headed by Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa, is expected to submit its report on higher allowances under the 7th Pay Commission in the last few days remaining in March 2017.

The proposal for higher allowances under the 7th Pay Commission will be implemented from April 2017 and will include recommendations of Dearness Allowance (DA), a report by India.com and The Sen Times said on Monday.

The Sixth Pay Commission does not provide for DA.

In a reply to a question Lok Sabha, on March 10, Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal, said that the committee has not submitted its report to the government but the deliberations of the committee are in the final stages.

The report by The Sen Times said that the Committee on Allowances has decided against reducing the house rent allowance (HRA).

Quoting a Finance Minister official the report said, “The 7th Pay Commission suggested bringing down the HRA to 24%, 16% and 8% respectively depending on type of cities.”

The officials also said that they have suggested HRA to be kept as under the Sixth Pay Commission of 30%, 20% and 10% respectively.

The Lavasa panel which was appointed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in June last year to examine the suggestions on allowances had 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.

The CPC recommended a separate object head for budgeting and accounting be used to record the expenditure.