7th Pay Commission: Allowance updates likely on Wednesday, check maximum, minimum HRA city wise

If the government accepts the bare recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission, then the HRA component will increase in a range between 106 to 122 per cent.

The Narendra Modi government is set to announce a minimum HRA hike of upto 11 per cent for the central government employees and pensioners as per the recommendations made by the 7th Pay Commission. As lakhs of central government and pensioners await a decision, the Empowered Committee of Secretaries are likely to place the recommendation on allowances before the Cabinet on Wednesday.

Favourable report

Sources say that the the committee on allowances has given a favourable view of the 7th Pay Commission's recommendations regarding the decrease in HRA by 2-6 per cent depending on type of cities.

The pay panel had earlier proposed the rate of House Rent Allowance at 24 percent, 16 percent and 8 percent of the Basic Pay for Class X, Y and Z cities respectively. It was also recommended that the rate of HRA will be revised to 27 percent, 18 percent and 9 percent when DA crosses 50 percent, and further revised to 30 percent, 20 percent and 10 percent when DA crosses 100 percent. Currently the HRA rates for Class X, Y and Z cities and towns are 30 percent, 20 percent and 10 percent of Basic pay.

Present and Proposed

City population			DA
	Current	Expected	50 per cent	100 per cent
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%

Cities and towns classified for grant of HRA

	State/UT	Cities X Cities X, HRA, Rs 60,000/month max HRA Rs 4,320/month min	Cities Y Max Rs 40,00/month HRS Min Rs 2,880/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

Those cities/UTs not covered under X and Y are classified as Z for purpose of HRA. The maximum and minimum HRA will be at Rs 20,000 and Rs 1,440 per month respectively.

Increase between 106 to 122 per cent

If the government accepts the bare recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission, then the HRA component will increase in a range between 106 to 122 per cent.

How it works

A central government employee at the very bottom of the pay scale under the 6th Pay Commission was entitled to HRA of Rs 2,100 on basic pay of Rs 7,000 (basic pay that includes pay of pay band + grade pay) in a Class X city. When the recommendations of the 7th pay panel were implemented it was said that until the final outcome on allowances were placed, employees would get allowances as per the 6th pay panel.

New entry level pay

As per the 7th Pay Commission, the new entry level pay at the above mentioned level is Rs 18,000 per month against which the new HRA for a Class X city would be Rs 4,320 per month. This is 106 per cent more than the existing level.

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. Following the revised pay scale, the new basic pay is Rs 2.5 lakh for which HRA would be Rs 60,000. This means the hike is 122 per cent.

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