7th Pay Commission on allowances: Where govt employees will get maximum HRA- check out city-wise

Know the actual HRA (House Rent Allowance) city-wise after the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the 7th CPC recommendations on allowances with some modifications.

New Delhi: The 10-month long wait of central government employees and pensioners for allowances comes to an end as the Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (June 28) approved the recommendations of the 7th CPC on allowances with some modifications.

The revised rates of the allowances will come into effect from 1st July, 2017 and will benefit more than 48 lakh central government employees.

While approving the recommendations of the 7th CPC on 29th June, 2016, the Cabinet had decided to set up the Committee on Allowances (CoA) in view of substantial changes in the existing provisions and a number of representations received.

The modifications are based on suggestions made by the CoA in its Report submitted to Finance Minister on 27th April, 2017 and the Empowered Committee of Secretaries set up to screen the recommendations of 7th CPC.

"HRA is currently paid @ 30% for X (population of 50 lakh & above), 20% for Y (5 to 50 lakh) and 10% for Z (below 5 lakh) category of cities. 7th CPC has recommended reduction in the existing rates to 24 percent for X, 16 percent for Y and 8 percent for Z category of cities," the government said in a statement.

Population of City			DA above
	Present	Proposed	50%	100%
Above 50 lakh (Class X)	30%	24%	27%	30%
5 lakh to 50 lakh (Class Y)	20%	16%	18%	20%
Below 5 lakh (Class Z)	10%	8%	9%	10%

"As the HRA at the reduced rates may not be sufficient for employees falling in lower pay bracket, it has been decided that HRA shall not be less than Rs 5,400, Rs 3,600 and Rs 1,800 for X, Y and Z category of cities respectively. This floor rate has been calculated @ 30%, 20% and 10% of the minimum pay of Rs 18,000. This will benefit more than 7.5 lakh employees belonging to Levels 1 to 3," it added.

"7th CPC had also recommended that HRA rates will be revised upwards in two phases to 27%, 18% and 9% when DA crosses 50% and to 30%, 20% and 10% when DA crosses 100%. Keeping in view the current inflation trends, the Government has decided that these rates will be revised upwards when DA crosses 25% and 50% respectively. This will benefit all employees who do not reside in government accommodation and get HRA," it said.

Population of City			DA above
	Present	Proposed	25%	50%
Above 50 lakh (Class X)	30%	24%	27%	30%
5 lakh to 50 lakh (Class Y)	20%	16%	18%	20%
Below 5 lakh (Class Z)	10%	8%	9%	10%

Below is the list of cities/towns classified for grant of House Rent Allowance (HRA) to central government employees

	States/Union Territories	Cities classified as X Max HRA-Rs 60,000 per month Min HRA-Rs 5,400 per month	Cities classified as Y Max HRA-Rs 40,000 per month Min HRA- Rs 3,600 per month
1	Andaman & Nicobar Islands
2	Andhra Pradesh	Hyderabad	Vijawada, Warangal, Visakhapatnam, Guntur, Nellore
3	Arunachal  Pradesh
4	Assam		Guwahati
5	Bihar		Patna
6	Chandigarh		Chandigarh
7	Chhattisgarh		Durg-Bhilai Nagar, Raipur
8	Dadra & Nagar Haveli
9	Daman & Diu
10	Delhi	Delhi
11	Goa
12	Gujarat	Ahmedabad	Rajkot, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Vadodara, Sutat
13	Haryana		Faridabad, Gurgaon
14	Himachal Pradesh
15	Jammu & Kashmir		Srinagar, Jammu
16	Jharkhand		Jamshedpur,  Dhanbad,  Ranchi, Bokaro Steel City
17	Karnataka	Bengaluru	Belgaum, Hubli-Dharwad, Mangalore, Mysore, Gulbarga
18	Kerala		Khozhikode, Kochi, Thiruvanthapuram, Thrissur, Malappuram, Kannur, Kollam
19	Lakshadweep
20	Madhya Pradesh		Gwalior, Indore, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Ujjain
21	Maharashtra	Greater Mumbai, Pune	Amravati, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Nashik, Bhiwandi, Solapur, Kolhapur, Vasai-Virar City, Malegaon, Nanded-Waghala, Sangli
22	Manipur
23	Meghalaya
24	Mizoram
25	Nagaland
26	Odisha		Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Raurkela
27	Pondicherry		Pondicherry
28	Punjab		Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana
29	Rajasthan		Bikaner, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Ajmer
30	Sikkim
31	Tamil Nadu	Chennai	Salem, Tiruppur, Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli, Madurai, Erode
32	Tripura
33	Uttar Pradesh		Moradabad, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Aligarh, Agra, Bareilly, Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Saharanpur, Noida, Firozabad, Jhansi
34	Uttarakhand		Dehradun
35	West Bengal	Kolkata	Asansol, Siliguri, Durgapur

The remaining cities / towns in various cities / UTs which are not covered by classification as ‘X’ or ‘Y’ classified as “Z” for the purpose of HRA for which max and min HRA will be Rs, 20,000 and Rs 1,800 per month respectively.

Net impact on HRA

As the Cabinet has accepted the recommendations of A K Mathur-led 7th Pay Commission on allowances so the HRA component of central government employees will increase ranging between 122 percent and 157 percent.

Take, for instance, a central government employee at the very bottom of the pay scale, where the basic pay (pay of pay band + grade pay) is now Rs 7,000, would currently be entitled to an HRA of Rs 2,100 in a Class X city. As per 7th Pay Commission, the new entry level pay at this level is Rs 18,000 per month against which the new HRA for a Class X city would be Rs 5,400 per month, that is 157 percent more than the existing level.

Similarly, at the highest level of the pay scale, the Cabinet Secretary and officers of the same rank have a basic pay of Rs 90,000, which means they are entitled to current HRA of Rs 27,000 in Class X towns. After the revised pay scale, the new basic pay is Rs 2.5 lakh, for which the HRA would be Rs 60,000, meaning a hike of 122 percent.

Existing Basic Pay (6th CPC)	HRA (6th CPC)			Entry Pay as per 7th CPC	Revised HRA as per 7th CPC (after Cabinet approval)
	Class X	Class  Y	Class Z		Class X	Class Y	Class Z
7000	2100	1400	700	18000	5400	3600	1800
13500	4050	2700	1350	35400	8496	5664	2832
21000	6300	4200	2100	56100	13464	8976	4488
46100	13830	9220	4610	118500	28440	18960	9480
90000	27000	18000	9000	250000	60000	40000	20000

As far as other allowances are concerned, the Union Cabinet has decided not to abolish 12 of the 53 allowances which were recommended to be abolished by the 7th CPC.

"The decision to retain these allowances has been taken keeping in view the specific functional requirements of Railways, Posts and Scientific Departments such as Space and Atomic Energy.  It has also been decided that 3 of the 37 allowances recommended to be subsumed by the 7th CPC will continue as separate identities. This has been done on account of the unique nature of these allowances," as per the govt statement.

"The rates of these allowances have also been enhanced as per the formula adopted by the 7th CPC. This will benefit over one lakh employees belonging to specific categories in Railways, Posts, Defence and Scientific Departments," it said.