Union Cabinet likely to take up the allowance hike this Wednesday

The Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS) is expected to meet this week and place the recommendations made by Lavasa Committee on Allowances this week in front of the Cabinet. It is expected to be taken up by the cabinet on Wednesday.

After receiving the Committee on Allowances report from Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa, the report was examined by the Department of Expenditure and after its, the report was handed over to the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS) headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha set up to screen the 7th CPC recommendations.

The unions leaders of central government employees are pressing hard for immediate cabinet approval of higher allowances and they are hopeful that the proposal regarding the allowances would be cleared by next week.

The 7th Pay Commission had recommended that of a total of 196 allowances, 52 be abolished altogether and 36 be abolished as separate identities by subsuming them in another allowance, which triggered resentment among central government employees that governments complied with formation of the Committee on Allowances headed by Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa to review it.

While the government implemented the recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission from January 1, 2016 in respect of basic pay and dearness allowances, other allowances continued to be paid at old rates.