Rules and Regulations House Rent Allowance (HRA) for CG Employees as per 7th Pay Commission
Revised HRA Rates from January 2021: IRTSA memorandum to Secretary Expenditure demanding revision of rates to 27%, 18% and 9% for X, Y & Z class cities with effect from 1st January 2021, the date on which rates of DA crossed 25% has been forwarded to Railway Ministry.
House Rent Allowance or HRA is one of the major salary elements for Central Government employees. The Central Govt is providing to all Central Govt employees a certain per cent of basic salary for compensating rental house expenditure. The rates of HRA are classified into three segments. Now the percentage of HRA is revised and effective from 1st July 2021 as 9% (Z Class), 18% (Y Class) and 27% (X Class)
The revised rates of HRA for Central Government employees have to be actually effective from 1st January 2021. The employee’s unions are demanding to implement the revised rates from 1st January 2021.
How to calculate HRA in salary?
All organizations including government and private fixes a certain percentage of basic salary to the employees for the purpose of house rent expenses. The HRA percentage is fixed according to the classification of cities and towns. The amount of HRA is calculated as per the basic salary of an employee.
If an employee gets Rs. 49000 as basic salary means, the HRA amount will be calculated as follows:
27% of basic salary: (49000 x 27) /100 = 13230
18% of basic salary: (49000 x 18) /100 = 8820
9% of basic salary: (49000 x 9) /100 = 4410
HRA Hike for Central Government Employees
28% DA Hike Impact On The Rate of HRA for CG Employees: The Rate of House Rent Allowance (HRA) Revised to 27%, 18% and 9% for X Class, Y Class and Z Class Cities respectively with effect from 1st July 2021 – Orders issued on 18th August 2021.
HRA Increase Order July 2021
The House Rent Allowance (HRA) will be revised for Central Government employees from 1st July 2021
After the Cabinet approval on DA hike by 11% from the existing rate of 17%, the new cumulative DA has been enhanced to 28% from 1st July 2021. The hike of Dearness Allowance is also impacting the rate of House Rent Allowance (HRA). As per the 7th pay commission report, the rates of HRA will be revised to 27%, 18% and 9% for X, Y & Z class cities respectively when Dearness Allowance (DA) crosses 25 per cent and further revised to 30%, 20% and 10% when DA crosses 50%. [View in detail]
7th CPC House Rent Allowance for Central Government Employees
The 6th CPC recommended 10 per cent of basic salary (Pay) for the employees working in other cities. And now the 7th pay commission recommended 8% of matrix pay for other cities. But the minimum amount of HRA is Rs. 1,800 (The minimum basic pay is Rs. 18,000 and the minimum HRA is equal to 10%).
The Government of India issued an important order regarding the rates and entitlements of House Rent Allowance for Central Government employees on 7.7.2017 as per the decision on the 7th pay commission report. The new revised rates (percentage) of HRA as per city classification with effect from 1st July 2017 as follows…
X Class Cities: 24 percent of Basic Pay
Y Class Cities: 16 percent of Basic Pay
Z Class Cities: 8 percent of Basic Pay
Indian cities are classified according to the population for the purpose of House Rent Allowance (HRA) to Central Government Employees:
X Class Cities (Above 50 Lakh Population): 24% of Basic Salary
Y Class Cities (5 to 50 Lakh Population): 16% of Basic Salary
Z Class Cities (Below 5 Lakh Population): 8% of Basic Salary
Minimum HRA Rs. 1,800 at the rate of 10%
The revised rates of HRA will not be less than Rs.5400 for X Class cities, Rs. 3600 for Y Class cities and Rs. 1800 for Z class cities. The below table denotes the minimum amount of HRA for pay level 1, pay level 2, and pay level 3.
HRA Calculation with minimum pay of all levels in Pay Matrix
Pay Matrix Level Minimum Basic Salary (Pay) HRA 24% HRA 16% HRA 8%
Pay Level 1 Rs. 18000 Rs. 5400 Rs. 3600 Rs. 1800
Pay Level 2 Rs. 19900 Rs. 5400 Rs. 3600 Rs. 1800
Pay Level 3 Rs. 21700 Rs. 5400 Rs. 3600 Rs. 1800
More than 7 lakh employees are benefiting due to the enhancement of minimum HRA and the table shows the basic pay in the pay level of 1, pay level 2 and pay level 3.
Classification of Cities for HRA after 7th Pay Commission
Indian cities are classified as three categories (X Cities, Y Cities, and Z Cities) for the purpose of House Rent Allowance as per the population record. The ‘X’ Class and ‘Y” Class cities and towns are denoting in the below table as State-wise and the other cities are under ‘Z’ Class.
State-wise List of X Y Z Class Cities in India
List of Classification of cities for HRA in Andhra Pradesh & Telangana
List of Classified ‘X’ City (24% HRA)
- Hyderabad (UA)
List of Classified ‘Y’ Cities (16% HRA)
- Vijayawada (UA)
- Warangal (UA)
- Greater Visakahapatnam (M.Corpn.)
- Guntur (UA)
- Nellore (UA)
List of Classification of cities for HRA in Assam
List of Classified ‘Y’ City (16% HRA)
- Guwahati (UA)
List of Classification of cities for HRA in Bihar
List of Classified ‘Y’ City (16% HRA)
- Patna (UA)
List of Classification of cities for HRA in Chandigarh
List of Classified ‘Y’ Cities (16% HRA)
- Chandigarh (UA)
- S.A.S. Nagar, Mohali*
List of Classification of cities for HRA in Chhattisgarh
List of Classified ‘Y’ Cities (16% HRA)
- Durg-Bhilai Nagar (UA)
- Raipur (UA)
List of Classification of cities for HRA in Delhi
List of Classified ‘X’ Cities (24% HRA)
- Delhi (UA)
List of Classification of cities for HRA in Gujarat
List of Classified ‘X’ Cities (24% HRA)
- Ahmadabad (UA)
Classified ‘Y’ Cities (16% HRA)
- Rajkot (UA)
- Jamnagar (UA)
- Bhavnagar (UA)
- Vadodara (UA)
- Surat (UA)
List of HRA Cities in Haryana
List of Classified ‘Y’ Cities (16% HRA)
- Faridabad* (M.Corpn.)
- Gurgaon* (UA)
List of Classification of cities for HRA in Jammu & Kashmir
List of Classified ‘Y’ Cities (16% HRA)
- Srinagar (UA)
- Jammu(UA)
List of Classification of cities for HRA in Jharkhand
List of Classified ‘Y’ Cities (16% HRA)
- Jamshedpur (UA)
- Dhanbad (UA)
- Ranchi (UA)
- Bokaro Steel City (UA)
List of Classification of cities for HRA in Karnataka
List of Classified ‘X’ Cities (24% HRA)
- Bangalore / Bengaluru (UA)
List of Classified ‘Y’ Cities (16% HRA)
- Belgaum (UA)
- Hubli-Dharwad (M.Corpn.)
- Mangalore (UA)
- Mysore (UA)
- Gulbarga (UA)
List of Classification of cities for HRA in Kerala
List of Classified ‘Y’ Cities (16% HRA)
- Kozhikode (UA)
- Kochi (UA)
- Thiruvananthapuram (UA)
- Thrissur (UA)
- Malappuram (UA)
- Kannur (UA)
- Kollam (UA)
List of Classification of cities for HRA in Madhya Pradesh
List of Classified ‘Y’ Cities (16% HRA)
- Gwalior (UA)
- Indore (UA)
- Bhopal (UA)
- Jabalpur (UA)
- Ujjain (M.Corpn.)
List of Classification of cities for HRA in Maharashtra
List of Classified ‘X’ Cities (24% HRA)
- Greater Mumbai (UA)
- Pune (UA)
List of Classified ‘Y’ Cities (16% HRA)
- Amravati (M.Corpn.)
- Nagpur (UA)
- Aurangabad (UA)
- Nashik (UA)
- Bhiwandi (UA)
- Solapur (M.Corpn.)
- Kolhapur (UA)
- Vasai–Virar City (M.Corpn.)
- Malegaon (UA)
- Nanded-Vaghela (M.Corpn.)
- Sangli (UA)
List of Classification of cities for HRA in Odisha
List of Classified ‘Y’ Cities (16% HRA)
- Cuttack (UA)
- Bhubaneswar (UA)
- Raurkela (UA)
List of Classification of cities for HRA in Puducherry (Pondicherry)
Classified ‘Y’ Cities (16% HRA)
Puducherry / Pondicherry (UA)
List of Classification of cities for HRA in Punjab
List of Classified ‘Y’ Cities (16% HRA)
- Amritsar (UA)
- Jalandhar (UA)
- Ludhiana (M.Coprn.)
List of HRA Cities in Rajasthan
List of Classified ‘Y’ Cities (16% HRA)
- Bikaner (M.Corpn.)
- Jaipur (M.Corpn.)
- Jodhpur (UA)
- Kota (M.Corpn.)
- Ajmer (UA)
List of Classification of cities for HRA in Tamil Nadu
List of Classified ‘X’ Cities (24% HRA)
- Chennai (UA)
Classified ‘Y’ Cities (16% HRA)
- Salem (UA)
- Tiruppur (UA)
- Coimbatore (UA)
- Tiruchirappalli (UA)
- Madurai (UA)
- Erode (UA)
List of Classification of cities for HRA in Uttar Pradesh
List of Classified ‘Y’ Cities (16% HRA)
- Moradabad (M.Corpn.)
- Meerut (UA)
- Ghaziabad* (UA)
- Aligarh (UA)
- Agra (UA)
- Bareilly (UA)
- Lucknow (UA)
- Kanpur (UA)
- Allahabad (UA)
- Gorakhpur (UA)
- Varanasi (UA)
- Saharanpur (M.Corpn.)
- Nodia* (CT)
- Firozabad (NPP)
- Jhansi (UA)
List of Classification of cities for HRA in Uttarakhand
List of Classified ‘Y’ Cities (16% HRA)
- Dehradun (UA)
List of Classification of cities for HRA in West Bengal
List of Classified ‘X’ Cities (24% HRA)
- Kolkata (UA)
List of Classified ‘Y’ Cities (16% HRA)
- Asansol (UA)
- Siliguri(UA)
- Durgapur (UA)
Note: S.A.S. Nagar, Mohali: Special sanction at par with Chandigarh | Faridabad, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Noida: Base on dependency only for HRA | Saharanpur: Classified as Y class with effect from June 2011