7th Pay Commission: Committee on allowances to submit its final report today?

The 7th Pay Commission has recommended doing away with 53 of the 196 allowances and merging a few others.

New Delhi: The committee on allowances to review 7th pay commission's recommendations is likely to submit its final report on Thursday.

Media reports have been rife with speculations that the committee has been so long waiting for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's return to the country after his visit to US and Russia.

Earlier, media reports had said that the report on higher allowance was to be submitted on February 20, however that deadline was missed.

The Union Cabinet on June 29 cleared the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission headed by AK Mathur in respect of the hike in basic pay and pension. However, the decision on 7th Pay Commission suggestions relating to allowances has been referred to a Committee headed by the Finance Secretary.

The 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) had recommended HRA at the rates initially from 24%, 16%, and 8 % and whenever DA reaches 50% it will be increased to 27%, 18% and 9%, The panel also said that s and when the DA reaches 100% the HRA will be revised to 30% , 20% and 10% for X,Y and Z cities respectively .

The pay commission also recommended doing away with 53 of the 196 allowances and merging a few others.

It is also reported that the committee has proposed to abolish 52 allowances, and subsume 36 allowances into existing allowances or proposed as new one. 12 Allowances are reported to have been proposed to be retained without changes, while the rest of the allowances have been tweaked little.