7th Pay Commission allowances: Where government employees will get maximum HRA- know city-wise

New Delhi: The 10-month long wait of central government employees and pensioners for allowances is about to end as the Narendra Modi government is expected to  announce a maximum HRA hike of up to 122 percent for them soon.

A high-level committee headed by the Finance Secretary, Ashok Lavasa had on last Thursday submitted its report to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The report will now be examined by the empowered committee of secretaries and following that it will be placed before the Cabinet.

The committee on allowances has reportedly given its view in favour of AK Mathur-led 7th Pay Commission recommendation, regarding decrease in house rent allowance (HRA) by 2-6 percent depending on type of cities.

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%

The 7th Pay Commission headed by AK Mathur had earlier proposed the rate of House Rent Allowance (HRA) at 24 percent, 16 percent and 8 percent of the Basic Pay for Class X, Y and Z cities respectively.

The Commission had 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.

The existing rates of HRA for Class X, Y and Z cities and towns are 30 percent, 20 percent and 10 percent of Basic pay (pay in the pay band plus grade pay)

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	Cities classified as Y
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.

-----------

If the Narendra Modi government accepts the bare recommendations of A K Mathur-led 7th Pay Commission then the HRA component of central government employees will increase ranging between 106 percent and 122 percent.

Take, for instance, a central government employee at the very bottom of the pay scale under 6th Pay Commission was till now entitled to an 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. It is to be noted that government, while implementing the 7th Pay Commission in June last year had made it clear that till the final outcome of allowances committee is being placed, the employees would be getting the allowances as per 6th Pay Commission.

Now, 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 4,320 per month, that is 106 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.