7th Pay Commission: Committee on Allowances yet to submit report: Minister of State for Finance

7th Pay Commission: Committee on Allowances yet to submit report: Minister of State for Finance

New Delhi: The Committee on Allowances, tasked with reviewing the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission on allowances, was given four months to submit its report. Later, the deadline was extended to February 22, 2017, has not yet submitted its report to the government.

In a written reply to a question on 7th Pay Commission in Lok Sabha on March 10, Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal said the Committee, under Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa, is yet to submit its report.

The minister said that the deliberations of the committee are in the final stages.

The Committee on Allowances was formed in July 2016 following protests by government employees over recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission on allowances.

The 7th Pay Commission had recommended of abolishing 51 allowances and subsuming 37 others out of 196 allowances.

In July, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley constituted a committee under Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa to review the recommendations. The committee was given four months’ time to submit the report to Finance Minister.

In October, Ashok Lavasa was quoted by some agencies as saying that he was ready with the report.

Later, the Finance Minister extended the deadline for report submission to February 22, 2017. Now, going by Minister of State for Finance’s reply, it seems government employees will have to wait longer before they can hear some news on hike in allowances.

According to some reports, the Committee on Allowances has decided that the current HRA slab, which is 30 per cent of basic pay, for metros would continue against reducing the House Rent Allowance (HRA) for central government employees. The 7th Pay Commission suggested bringing down the HRA to 24 per cent, 16 per cent and 8 per cent respectively depending on type of cities.

The transport allowance is likely to remain constant as certain reports said the Committee on Allowances agreed with 7th Pay Commission’s recommendation, which had already factored in the Dearness Allowance at 125 per cent assuming the date of implementation to be January 1 next year.

TST