No consensus reached between Committee on Allowances and central govt employees’ unions; HRA to be finalised in next meetinghouse's

New Delhi, Mar 29: The Committee on Allowances held a meeting with representatives of the central government employees’ unions on higher allowances under the 7th Pay Commission on Tuesday, but no consensus could be reached. During the meeting, central government employees expressed concern over the delay in finalising report of the Committee on Allowances on higher allowances under the 7th Pay Commision.

The employee representatives sought an early finalisation of allowance panel report. In the next meeting, the issues of the house rent allowance (HRA) will also be finalised.

The Committee on Allowances also sought comments from the ministries of defence, railways and posts on treatment of 14 allowances under the 7th Pay Commission. The high-level committee will finalise its report on payment of allowances to 47 lakh government employees after receiving comments from ministries. These 14 allowances had not been factored in previously and the concerned ministries have been asked to give their views on what is to be done with them, reported PTI.

The government is keen to give out the revised allowances from the fiscal year beginning April 1 but will take a call on payment of arrears in case the rollout is delayed. The government is waiting for the report of the Committee on Allowances. The panel will hold another meeting with the representatives of the central government employees’ unions and discuss the 7th pay commission recommendation of reducing the HRA to 24 per cent of basic pay as against the 30 per cent of basic pay employees were drawing under the Sixth Pay Commission.

The 7th Pay Commission had recommended abolition of 51 allowances and subsuming of 37 others out of 196 allowances. The 7th Pay Commission had recommended abolition of or subsuming of allowances like acting, assisting cashier, cycle, condiment, flying squad, haircutting, rajbhasha, rajdhani, robe, shoe, shorthand, soap, spectacle, uniform, vigilance and washing.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley constituted the Committee on Allowances under Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa in June last year after the government implemented the recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission.