Last week, Cabinet Secretary had assured that Empowered Committee of Secretaries will discuss the Ashok Lavasa Committee report positively on Thursday.
New Delhi, June 1: The suspense over the new higher allowance structure will be over in a few hours from now as the meeting between the Cabinet Secretary and the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (ECoS) has already begun and anytime a major announcement is expected. The agenda of the meeting will be to decide on the review report submitted by Committee on Allowances led by Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa, a report said.
Last week, Cabinet Secretary had assured that E-CoS will discuss the Ashok Lavasa Committee report positively on Thursday. After the meeting is over the final report will be handed over to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who will present it before the Union Cabinet. The Lavasa Committee’s recommendations had called for the changes in allowance structure of central government employees proposed by the 7th Central Pay Commission.
Today at the meeting one of the most crucial topics to be taken up will be House Rent Allowance (HRA). The Commission has also suggested that the rates of HRA must be revised to 24 per cent, 16 per cent and 8 per cent according to the pay and the position of the employees. The 7th Pay Commission headed by Justice AK Mathur had also advised revising the HRA rates by 27 per cent, 18 per cent and 9 per cent when Dearness Allowance crosses 50 per cent and further increase it to 30 per cent, 20 per cent and 10 per cent if DA goes beyond 100 per cent.
A large number of central government employees who have been eagerly waiting for the higher allowance and the HRA are demanding that their HRA must be paid at a rate of 30 per cent, 20 per cent and 10 per cent of their basic pay. The Central Government Employee Unions had said that “If the commission before 7CPC had not increased the HRA rates they had not also decreased the rates”.
The 7th Pay Commission had also suggested that out of 196 allowances, 52 should be abolished and 36 others must be subsumed under the existing allowances. Due to which the Union Cabinet have decided to have extensive changes pertaining to allowances suggested by the pay panel reviewed by the Committee on Allowance before implementation.
Meanwhile, the Central Government employees are getting their allowances on older rates, as the new rates are yet to be finalised and implemented by the government. All eyes are now set on the ECoS meeting today to look into the payment of arrears on reformed allowance rates.
Source:- India.com
