Cabinet decisions on CG Employees and Pensioners after a long wait! 

Cabinet has taken decision only on Allowances and no word on minimum wages and fitment factor enhancement contrary to some News Channels which were telecasting wrong news of raise in basic pay and figment factor.

Highlights of Cabinet approval on Allowances:

1) Fully DA-indexed allowances such as Transport Allowance were not given any raise. Allowances not indexed to DA were raised by a factor of 2.25 and the partially indexed ones by a factor of 1.5. The quantum of allowances paid as a percentage of pay was rationalised by a factor of 0.8.

2) Government 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. The rates of these allowances have also been enhanced as per the formula adopted by the 7th CPC. This means 41 Allowances are abolished as recommended by 7th CPC.

3) 7th CPC had  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 means the existing higher rate of HRA will not continue.

4) FMA doubled from 500/- to 1000/- per month to Pensioners. So the FMA is enhanced to 1000/- instead of 2000/- already being granted to PF Department since 2006 and demanded by us.

5) Rate of Children Education Allowance (CEA) has been increased from ₹1500 per month / child (max. 2) to ₹2250 per month / child (max.2). Hostel Subsidy will also go up from ₹4500 per month to ₹6750 per month.

6) Existing rates of Special Allowance for Child Care for Women with Disabilities has been doubled from ₹1500 per month to ₹3000 per month.

7) Higher Qualification Incentive for Civilians has been increased from ₹2000 - ₹10000 (Grant) to ₹10000 - ₹30000 (Grant

8) Cycle Allowance to Postman retained and doubled from 90/- to 180/-;

9) Rate of constant attendance allowance increased from 4500/- to 6750/-; this means this allowance is not doubled but only 50% increased.

10) The 7th CPC had recommended that TLA will not be admissible with Special Duty Allowance (SDA) payable in North-East, Ladakh and the Islands. Government has decided that employees will be given the option to avail of the benefit of SCRLA at pre-revised rates along with SDA at revised rates.
-KR GS AIPRPA