7th Pay Commission allowances – Common allowances to be examined separately

7th Pay Commission allowances – Common allowances to be examined separately

Govt has formed a committee to examine the recommendations of 7th Pay Commission relating to all 196 allowances. Here is an analysis on why Common allowances should not be clubbed with other allowances

7th Pay Commission Allowances – Clubbing of examination of Common Allowances such as House Rent Allowance, Dearness Allowance, Children Education Allowance, Transport Allowance etc with lesser known and paid to few only allowances would cause more delay

7th Pay Commission Allowances – It may be recalled that 7th Pay Commission abolished as many as 51 allowances after examining 196 existing Allowances and also subsumed 37 Allowances.

As a result of such major change in 7th Pay Commission Allowances, Cabinet has decided that recommendations in respect of all the allowances are to be examined by a Committee headed by Finance Secretary.

What are those 196 allowances ?

Now, let us have a look at the a summary of recommendations in respect of all 196 allowances which have been taken for examination by 7th Pay Commission.

It could be seen that excepting certain common allowances that are granted to all Central Government Employees such as Dearness Allowance, House Rent Allowances, Transport Allowance, Children Education Allowance, Tour Travelling Allowance, etc, many of the allowances are payable only to very few employees on the basis of nature of work, qualification, risk involved, place of work etc.

So, those common allowances could be examined separately without causing delay in revision and payment of these allowances.

It is of the opinion all benefiting employees out of implementation of 7th Pay Commission that clubbing these common allowances with other cadre specific allowances, examination of which involve considerable technical study. Hence it would result in more delay in taking decision on Common allowances as well by Govt.

Ultimately, it would result in considerable monetory loss to Central Government Employees as revision in allowances are paid on prospective basis only.

In fact, 7th Pay Commission itself has categorised these 196 allowances under 15 categories.

Sl No.	Category	No. of Allowances
1	Allowances payable for Additional/Extra Duty	14
2	Allowances related to Knowledge Updates	3
4	Allowances related to Working on Holidays	3
5	Allowances related to Housing	7
6	Allowances related to Good Service	4
8	Allowances related to Risk and Hardship	51
9	Allowances for Running Staff of Indian Railways	13
10	Allowances related to Sports	2
11	Sumptuary Allowances	5
12	Allowances related to Training	2
13	Allowances related to Travel	13
14	Allowances related to Uniform	9
15	Other Allowances	52
	Total:	196

It is found that all the common allowances viz., Dearness Allowance, House Rent Allowance, Transport Allowance, Tour Travelling Allowance and Children Education Allowance, fall under 3 categories only out of 15 categories of Allowances discussed in detail by 7th Pay Commission.

Those categories are

1. Allowances related to Housing,
2. Allowances related to Travel and
3. Other Allowances

Even if allowances under these 3 categories are given priority in examination, all the main allowances could be examined by the Committee formed by the Govt well in prior, so that there will not be more delay for revision of Common Allowances.

We hope all Staff Unions and associations would take this aspect in to consideration to get the revision of common allowances as early as possible.