Andhra Pradesh govt revises HRA, pension to meet demands of staff unions

AMARAVATI: Bringing the pact with the employees' associations into operation, the state government issued GOs to revise the House Rent Allowance (HRA) and additional quantum pension for the retired employees.
The state government has upped the HRA for the employees working in state secretariat, offices of HODs, New Delhi and Hyderabad to 24 % of the basic pay from the previous 16 %.
In fact, the state government had been paying 30 % HRA for the secretariat, Hyderabad and New Delhi employees for the past since they moved from Hyderabad to Amaravati.
This was brought down to 16% during the Pay Revision Commission (PRC) talks and government hurriedly issued GOs.
Angered over sharp reduction in the HRA, the employees threatened to go on indefinite strike which prompted the government to hold talks.
After several rounds of negotiations, the state government last fortnight had agreed to revise the HRA and also pay additional quantum of pension for the retired employees, which was removed for 70-80 years age bracket during the initial PRC GOs.
The HRA slabs which were reduced to 16, 12 and 8 %, were revised to 24, 16, 12 and 10%.
The state government had, however, put a cap at Rs.25,000 on the maximum HRA to be paid to the employees. Similarly, the HRA for the employees working the municipal corporation cities would be 16 percent of the basic pay with a ceiling at Rs.17000.
The government would pay 12 percent of the basic pay or Rs 13,000 as HRA for the employees working in the towns with population between 50,000-2 lakh. All those employees working in the small areas with less than 50,000 population would get 10% of the basic pay as HRA.
The government will pay 7 % additional quantum of pension to pensioners between 70-74 years and 12 percent additional quantum to pensioners between 75-79 years. Similarly, pensioners between 80-84 years would get 20 % additional quantum and 25 % for those between 85-89 years.
While 30 % would be given to pensioners between 90-94 years, 35 % will be granted to retirees between 95-99 years. Fifty % additional pension would be granted to those pensioners with 100 years age.
The state government had also issued GO to grant City Compensatory Allowance (CCA) which was withdrawn during the initial PRC talks. CCA would be ranging between Rs.200-Rs.1000 depending on the place of work.