No 30% HRA For Babus in Noida
THE Department of Expenditure has noticed that payment of HRA @ 30% of Basic Pay is being made by certain Ministries/Departments to the Central Government employees posted at Greater Noida, in violation of the instructions issued by the Finance Ministry in this regard, from time to time.
Ministry clarifies that Greater Noida was an 'Unclassified' town/place for the purpose of grant of HRA prior to 01.09.2008 and consequent upon the implementation of the recommendations of the 6th Central Pay Commission, it has been classified as ' Z' class town/place w.e.f. 01.09. 2008 vide Ministry's O.M. No. 2(13)/2008-E.II(B) dated 29. 08.2008 on grant of House Rent Allowance to the Central Government employees and classification of cities/towns for this purpose.
As per this O.M, in ‘Z' Class town/place, the HRA is 10% while it is 30% in the six major cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
It seems that the Department of Expenditure has become active overnight. Only yesterday in DDT-1917 we reported the clarification issued by this department that the Central government employees posted at Faridabad, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and Noida are entitled to lower Transport Allowance as these cities fall in the "other places" category. So, now it's a double whammy - lesser TA and lesser HRA! What would happen to all those payments made at the higher rates all these days? Who is responsible and how will these amounts be recovered from the officers? Quite possibly, at these mofussil areas nobody bothers about HRA and TA!.