Ad-hoc Bonus (Non-Productivity Linked Bonus)

The ad-hoc bonus is the flat 30 day non-PLB bonus for Group C and non-gazetted Group B central staff: Rs. 6,908 on a Rs. 7,000 ceiling unchanged since 2014.

Updated 12 August 2026

The non-productivity-linked bonus, universally called the ad-hoc bonus, is a flat annual bonus of 30 days of emoluments paid to Group C and all non-gazetted Group B central government employees who are not covered by any Productivity Linked Bonus scheme, computed on a monthly emoluments ceiling of Rs. 7,000 and worth Rs. 6,908 to anyone earning above that ceiling. It is sanctioned each year by the Department of Expenditure and paid before Diwali.

The order in force is Office Memorandum F. No. 7/24/2007/E III (A) dated 29 September 2025, which conveys the sanction of the President to 30 days of bonus for the accounting year 2024-25. Its five paragraphs and a two-part Annexure settle the whole scheme: the ceiling, the 30.4-day divisor, the six-month service test, the treatment of casual labour, and eleven clarifications covering deputation, re-employment, transfer, leave and suspension.

This article covers what makes the bonus ad-hoc and non-productivity-linked, who receives it and who is excluded, how the Rs. 7,000 ceiling and the 30.4-day divisor produce Rs. 6,908, the eligibility and pro-rata rules, the Annexure clarifications, casual labour, the withdrawal of the extension to central autonomous bodies after 2014-15, the ex-gratia character of the payment, the tax position, and the demand to raise the ceiling.

The ad-hoc bonus is the counterpart, for the bulk of the central government workforce, of the productivity bonus paid in the Railways and a few other departments. Between them the two schemes reach almost every non-gazetted central government employee, so nearly everyone draws a bonus before Diwali. The difference lies in the number of days and in whether a productivity formula sits behind the figure.

What makes it ad-hoc and non-productivity-linked

The name states the mechanism. The bonus is non-productivity-linked because no productivity formula produces the number. The employees who receive it, the clerical and secretariat staff, the establishment and accounts staff, and the field and office staff of the ministries and their attached and subordinate offices, work in departments whose output cannot be measured against a target the way net tonne-kilometres or units produced can. Where output cannot be counted, a bonus of the PLB kind cannot be computed.

It is ad-hoc because the government fixes a number of days by executive order in place of a formula. That number has been 30 days for many consecutive years, so the payment behaves like a fixed annual festival grant rather than a variable one. The word also marks its legal character: a discretionary, ex-gratia grant decided afresh each year, not an entitlement an employee can enforce.

The sanction is conveyed annually by the Department of Expenditure, in the E III (A) branch, on the standing file number 7/24/2007. The order for the accounting year 2024-25 issued on 29 September 2025 and was signed by a Deputy Secretary to the Government of India. The late September or early October timing is deliberate, set so the money reaches employees before the Dussehra and Diwali holidays.

Who receives it, and who does not

Eligibility stops at two categories. All Group C central government employees receive the ad-hoc bonus, and so do all non-gazetted Group B central government employees, provided in each case that they are not covered by any Productivity Linked Bonus scheme.

Two lines exclude everyone else. The seniority line puts Group A officers and gazetted Group B officers outside the scheme entirely, so they draw no bonus at all. The scheme line sends railway, postal, defence-production and Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation staff to PLB instead, because their departments run a productivity-measurement scheme. A third exclusion sits in item (k) of the Annexure to the 29 September 2025 order: part-time employees engaged on nominal fixed payment are not eligible.

The order reaches beyond the civil ministries by its own terms. Payment is admissible to the eligible employees of the central armed police forces and the armed forces, and the orders are deemed extended to employees of union territory administrations that follow the central government pattern of emoluments and are not covered by any other bonus or ex-gratia scheme. For persons serving in the Indian Audit and Accounts Department the order is issued in consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, as Article 148(5) of the Constitution requires.

The 30-day figure and the Rs. 6,908 amount

Thirty days of ad-hoc bonus is Rs. 6,908 for any employee above the calculation ceiling. Two figures produce it, and both are fixed in paragraph 2(ii) of the Office Memorandum dated 29 September 2025.

The calculation ceiling is Rs. 7,000 of monthly emoluments. The bonus is worked out on average emoluments in the year or on the ceiling, whichever is lower. Since the minimum basic pay under the 7th Central Pay Commission is Rs. 18,000 a month, every regular employee is above Rs. 7,000 on basic pay alone, before dearness allowance is added, so the bonus is computed on the notional Rs. 7,000 rather than on actual pay. The ceiling was raised from Rs. 3,500 to Rs. 7,000 with effect from 1 April 2014 by Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 7/4/2014-E.III(A) dated 29 August 2016, and it has not moved since.

The daily divisor is 30.4, the average number of days in a month. One day of bonus is the average emoluments in a year divided by 30.4, so the one-day rate on the ceiling is Rs. 7,000 divided by 30.4, or Rs. 230.26. For 30 days:

Ad-hoc bonus = Rs. 7,000 times 30 divided by 30.4 = Rs. 6,907.89, rounded to Rs. 6,908

All payments are rounded to the nearest rupee under paragraph 2(iv). The ceiling makes seniority irrelevant to the amount. A section assistant whose basic pay plus dearness allowance is Rs. 70,000 a month receives Rs. 6,908, because the calculation discards the Rs. 70,000 and uses Rs. 7,000. A junior clerk on Rs. 30,000 a month receives the same Rs. 6,908. Two employees nine years apart in seniority draw an identical bonus, which is the most-felt feature of the scheme and the root of the demand to lift the ceiling.

The doubling in 2014 is visible in the same arithmetic. On the old Rs. 3,500 ceiling, 30 days came to Rs. 3,500 times 30 divided by 30.4, which is Rs. 3,453.95, rounded to Rs. 3,454. Raising the ceiling to Rs. 7,000 doubled that to Rs. 6,908, where it has stood for every accounting year since 2014-15.

Emoluments below the ceiling and casual labour

The Rs. 7,000 ceiling caps the calculation but sets no floor. An employee whose average monthly emoluments are below Rs. 7,000 is paid on actual emoluments, because the rule in paragraph 2(ii) of the 29 September 2025 order is average emoluments or the ceiling, whichever is lower. Among regular employees this no longer arises, since the 7th CPC minimum is Rs. 18,000, but it governs casual labour, for whom a separate and lower ceiling applies.

Casual labour qualify on a service record measured in days worked rather than months served. The test in paragraph 2(iii) is at least 240 days of work in each year for three years or more in an office following a six day week, or 206 days in each year for three years or more in an office observing a five day week. Item 2(a) of the Annexure allows the 240 days in a year to be made up by combining days worked in more than one office of the Government of India, provided no bonus, ex-gratia or incentive payment was earned and received for those days.

The amount is computed on a ceiling of Rs. 1,200 a month, so 30 days works out to Rs. 1,200 times 30 divided by 30.4, which is Rs. 1,184.21, rounded to Rs. 1,184. Where actual monthly emoluments fall below Rs. 1,200, the lower actual figure is used instead of the ceiling.

Two further clarifications sit in the Annexure. The requirement of being in employment on 31 March applies to regular government employees and not to casual labour, so a casual labourer not at work on that date is not thereby disqualified. And where a casual labourer was regularised during the accounting year and consequently falls short of six months of continuous service as a regular employee, the casual-labour benefit may be allowed instead, provided the regular service in that year added to the period worked as casual labour reaches the specified number of days.

Eligibility and the six-month test

Two conditions decide eligibility for the ad-hoc bonus, and both sit in paragraph 2(i) of the Office Memorandum dated 29 September 2025. The employee must have been in service on 31 March of the accounting year, and must have rendered at least six months of continuous service during that year.

An employee with between six months and a full year of continuous service receives a pro-rata bonus. The eligibility period is taken in terms of the number of months of service, rounded off to the nearest number of months, so the calculation runs in whole months rather than days. An employee with less than six months of continuous service is not eligible, and a new entrant who joined too late in the year to complete six months by 31 March draws a first ad-hoc bonus in the following cycle.

Item (a) of the Annexure settles the position of employees appointed on a purely temporary ad-hoc basis: they are eligible, provided there is no break in service. The label under which a person was appointed does not decide the question; continuity of service does.

Item (b) covers exits before the qualifying date. Employees who resigned, retired or died before 31 March are outside the scheme as a general rule, because the in-service test fails, but a special case is carved out. Those who superannuated, retired on invalidation on medical grounds, or died before 31 March after completing at least six months of regular service during the year are eligible on a pro-rata basis, in terms of the nearest number of months of service. An employee who resigned is not within that carve-out.

Deputation, re-employment and transfer

Four items of the Annexure to the 29 September 2025 order decide who pays the ad-hoc bonus when an employee has moved during the accounting year, and the answer in every case turns on where the employee stood on 31 March.

An employee on deputation or foreign service terms to a state government, a union territory government or a public sector undertaking on 31 March is not eligible for the ad-hoc bonus from the lending department. The liability rests with the borrowing organisation, and is met under whatever ad-hoc bonus, PLB, ex-gratia or incentive scheme that organisation operates. Where an employee reverted during the accounting year from such deputation, the total of the bonus or ex-gratia received from the foreign employer and any central ad-hoc bonus due for the period after reversion is restricted to the amount that would have been due under the ad-hoc bonus orders alone.

Reverse deputation runs the other way. An employee from a state government, a union territory administration or a public sector undertaking on deputation to the central government is eligible, and the borrowing department pays, provided no additional incentive beyond deputation allowance forms part of the terms of deputation and the lending authority has no objection.

Re-employment after superannuation counts as fresh employment. The eligibility period is worked out separately for the re-employment period, and the total admissible for the period before superannuation and the re-employment period together is restricted to the maximum admissible under the orders, which is Rs. 6,908 for 30 days.

Transfer between offices covered by the ad-hoc bonus orders does not break the qualifying period. An employee transferred from one ministry, department or office covered by the orders to another such office, within the Government of India or a union territory government, without a break in service is eligible on the basis of combined service in the different organisations, and so is a person nominated to a different organisation through a limited departmental or open competitive examination. Payment is made only by the organisation employing the person on 31 March, with no adjustment against the previous employer. Where the move crosses between an ad-hoc bonus department and a PLB department in either direction, the employee is paid what would have been due on the ad-hoc bonus basis for the entire year, less the amount due as productivity-linked bonus.

Leave, extraordinary leave and suspension

Leave other than leave without pay counts towards the six-month eligibility period for the ad-hoc bonus. Item (g) of the Annexure to the 29 September 2025 order is explicit: half-pay leave, leave not due and study leave taken at any time during the accounting year are all included when working out the eligibility period.

Extraordinary leave is treated differently, and so is dies non. Both are excluded from the eligibility period, which can pull an employee below the six-month threshold, but neither counts as a break in service for the purpose of the ad-hoc bonus. The distinction matters: the period does not earn eligibility, yet it does not destroy the continuity of what came before and after it.

Suspension turns on what the employee was actually paid. Subsistence allowance drawn during a period of suspension in the accounting year cannot be treated as emoluments, so the period does not count on its own. An employee under suspension becomes eligible for the ad-hoc bonus if and when reinstated with the benefit of emoluments for the period of suspension. In every other case the period of suspension is excluded from the eligibility period, exactly as a period of leave without pay is.

Autonomous bodies: the extension withdrawn after 2014-15

Employees of central autonomous bodies do not receive the ad-hoc bonus, and have not received it since the accounting year 2014-15. The last order extending the scheme to them was Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum F. No. 7/22/2008-E.III(A) dated 26 October 2015, which extended the 2014-15 bonus orders to autonomous bodies. No extension order has been issued for 2015-16 or for any accounting year since.

The extension, while it ran, was conditional. An autonomous body could pay the ad-hoc bonus only where it was partly or fully funded by the central government, followed a pattern of pay structure and emoluments identical to that of the central government, and had no bonus, ex-gratia or incentive scheme of its own in operation. The funding condition was equally firm: the central government did not fund the liability, the expenditure had to be met from within the body’s existing budgetary provision, and requests to administrative ministries for extra funds were not to be considered.

The discontinuation is a settled policy position, not an oversight. Answering Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 55 on 6 February 2023, the Government stated that a policy decision had been taken not to extend the ad-hoc bonus to employees of autonomous bodies partly or fully funded by the central government. The staff side of the national council has pressed for restoration, so far without an order.

Payments made in the gap have been treated as irregular expenditure. The Comptroller and Auditor General, in Report No. 6 of 2019, recorded at paragraph 9.1 that orders granting ad-hoc bonus to autonomous bodies were issued for 2014-15 but that no orders were issued for 2015-16 and 2016-17, and that the Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry, had paid Rs. 4.56 crore of ad-hoc bonus to its employees for those two years without orders from the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare accepted the audit paragraph and informed audit in July 2018 that the institute had initiated recovery.

The Public Accounts Committee took the matter further. Its 62nd Report of the 17th Lok Sabha, titled “Irregular Payment of ad-hoc Bonus” and presented on 5 April 2023, recorded that thirteen central autonomous bodies under the Department of Higher Education, the Department of School Education and the Ministry of Culture had paid ad-hoc bonus totalling Rs. 15.87 crore across 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 without obtaining approval from their administrative ministries or seeking clarification from the Department of Expenditure. The Asiatic Society, Kolkata alone accounted for Rs. 38.15 lakh over those three years and continued paying afterwards. The Committee asked that the accountability of the officers concerned be fixed and that recovery be pressed. The operative lesson for an autonomous body is that a live, competent-authority order for the specific accounting year is a precondition to payment, and that meeting the cost from its own development fund does not cure the absence of one.

An ex-gratia payment, not a right

A central government servant has no statutory right to a bonus. The ad-hoc bonus is an ex-gratia payment granted at the discretion of the government by executive order, sanctioned afresh for each accounting year, which is what the word “ad-hoc” records. The order conveys the sanction of the President; it does not create an enforceable entitlement for the following year.

The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 does not apply to a government servant. That Act creates a statutory right to bonus for employees of factories and other covered establishments, with a minimum of 8.33% and a maximum of 20% of wages, and none of its mechanics reach the ad-hoc bonus: not the allocable surplus, not the set-on and set-off provisions, not the percentage floor and ceiling. The only shared idea is that of a wage ceiling for computation, and the figures under the two schemes differ.

The practical consequence is that the government may vary the number of days, or in principle withhold the bonus altogether, without breaching any entitlement, because none exists. In practice 30 days has been sanctioned year after year, and the payment has become a settled expectation. It remains a grant rather than a due.

The governing orders and the Annexure

The scheme runs on a standing file number and an annual order. Every recent sanction issues from the Department of Expenditure on File No. 7/24/2007-E.III(A), so the 2022-23 order dated 17 October 2023, the 2023-24 order dated 10 October 2024 and the 2024-25 order dated 29 September 2025 all carry the same file number and differ only in the accounting year and the date.

Two earlier orders still do work in the current scheme. Office Memorandum No. 7/4/2014-E.III(A) dated 29 August 2016 fixed the calculation ceiling at Rs. 7,000 with effect from 1 April 2014, and every subsequent annual order recites that ceiling as revised by it. The same file number carried the ad-hoc bonus orders for 2015-16 and 2016-17, dated 3 October 2016 and 19 September 2017.

How the detailed clarifications are carried has changed. Older annual orders disposed of the point by cross-reference, directing that the clarificatory orders issued in the Ministry’s Office Memorandum No. F.14(10)-E.Coord/88 dated 4 October 1988, as amended from time to time, would hold good; that sub-clause appears in the orders for 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16. The current orders do not cite the 1988 memorandum at all. Paragraph 2(v) of the 2024-25 order instead states that various points regarding regulation of ad-hoc and non-PLB bonus are given in the Annexure, and the clarifications are set out there in full.

That Annexure is now the operative text for every question the main paragraphs leave open. Point 1 runs from item (a) to item (k) and covers purely temporary ad-hoc appointees, those who resigned, retired or died before 31 March, deputation and foreign service, reversion from deputation, reverse deputation to the centre, re-employment after superannuation, half-pay leave and extraordinary leave and study leave, suspension, transfer between offices covered by the orders, movement between ad-hoc bonus and PLB organisations, and part-time employees on nominal fixed payment. Point 2 adds three casual-labour cases. An administrative question about the ad-hoc bonus is answered from the Annexure to the year’s order, not from the 1988 memorandum.

Productivity Linked Bonus and the ad-hoc bonus compared

The two government bonuses share a calculation mechanism and differ in coverage and in the number of days. Both are computed on the same Rs. 7,000 ceiling and the same 30.4-day divisor, both are ex-gratia, and both are paid before Dussehra and Diwali. The table sets out the differences for the accounting year 2024-25, the latest year sanctioned under both schemes.

Feature	Productivity Linked Bonus	Ad-hoc bonus (non-PLB)
Who receives it	Non-gazetted staff of the Railways, the Department of Posts, defence production and EPFO	Group C and non-gazetted Group B staff in all other departments
Basis for the days	A negotiated productivity formula	A flat number fixed by executive order
Days for 2024-25	78 days for railway employees	30 days
Calculation ceiling	Rs. 7,000 monthly emoluments	Rs. 7,000 monthly emoluments
Divisor	30.4	30.4
Amount above the ceiling	Rs. 17,951 for 78 days	Rs. 6,908 for 30 days
Legal character	Ex-gratia, executive scheme	Ex-gratia, executive grant
Issued by	The administrative department, for example the Railway Board	The Department of Expenditure

The railway figures for 2024-25 are the largest single case. The Union Cabinet approved 78 days of PLB for railway employees in September 2025, at a cost of Rs. 1,865.68 crore covering 10,91,146 non-gazetted employees, with a maximum of Rs. 17,951 for each eligible employee, sanctioned by Railway Board order RBE No. 101/2025. The shared row in the table is the ceiling: an employee in a PLB department and one in a non-PLB department are computed on the same notional Rs. 7,000, so only the number of days separates their bonus.

The annual order, the budget and when it is paid

The ad-hoc bonus is drawn and disbursed by the employee’s own office once the Department of Expenditure order issues, with no separate application. The order for an accounting year is issued in the following September or October, and the money is timed to reach employees before the Dussehra and Diwali holidays, which is why it is popularly called the Diwali bonus.

The cost is not separately funded. Paragraph 4 of the Office Memorandum dated 29 September 2025 requires the expenditure on the 2024-25 bonus to be met from within the sanctioned budget provision of the concerned ministries and departments for the financial year 2025-26, so a ministry absorbs the payment within its existing grant. Paragraph 3 makes the expenditure debitable to the respective object head in terms of the Department of Expenditure’s notification dated 16 December 2022, which replaced the older instruction to debit the heads to which the pay and allowances of those employees are debited.

The order for the accounting year 2025-26 has not been issued as on 12 August 2026. The most recent sanction remains the one dated 29 September 2025 for 2024-25, and on the settled pattern the next order falls due in September or October 2026. Until it issues, no figure for 2025-26 can be stated, and the number of days for that year is not fixed by anything in the 2024-25 order.

Tax treatment and what the bonus does not count for

The ad-hoc bonus is fully taxable as salary income in the year of receipt. No provision of the income tax law exempts it, it is charged at the applicable slab rate under either the new regime or the old, and tax is deducted at source by the drawing and disbursing officer in the month of payment. Because it lands in a single month, the deduction that month rises, but across the year it is simply part of taxable salary, as the income tax for government employees article sets out, and it forms part of that month’s take-home salary.

The bonus counts for nothing beyond that month. It is not emoluments for pension or gratuity, both of which rest on basic pay, it does not enter the pay matrix cell or affect any pay-linked allowance, and it is not reckoned for provident fund subscription. The Annexure makes the same point from the other direction in the suspension case, where subsistence allowance is expressly not treated as emoluments. A payment of Rs. 6,908 in October changes that month’s tax deduction and nothing else in the employee’s service record.

The demand to lift the ceiling

The Rs. 7,000 calculation ceiling is the central grievance about the ad-hoc bonus, and it is the same grievance that attaches to PLB. The ceiling was last revised with effect from 1 April 2014, while the minimum pay of a central government employee rose to Rs. 18,000 under the 7th Central Pay Commission from 1 January 2016 and every pay level has moved further since through annual increments and dearness allowance. The bonus has been frozen at Rs. 6,908 for over a decade while pay has climbed.

The arithmetic of the freeze is straightforward. An employee earning Rs. 60,000 a month has a bonus computed on Rs. 7,000, which is under 12% of one month’s emoluments, and receives the same Rs. 6,908 as a colleague on half that pay. The ceiling converts a bonus into a flat festival payment that bears no relation to the salary it is nominally a share of.

The staff side of the national council has pressed for the ceiling to be removed so that the bonus is computed on actual emoluments of basic pay plus dearness allowance rather than a notional Rs. 7,000, and has put the demand to the 8th Central Pay Commission. No order revising the ceiling has issued, and no revised figure can be stated as fact until one does. The position in force is 30 days, a Rs. 7,000 ceiling, and Rs. 6,908 for anyone above it.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the ad-hoc bonus for central government employees?

The ad-hoc bonus, formally the non-productivity-linked bonus, is a flat annual bonus paid to Group C and all non-gazetted Group B central government employees who are not covered by any Productivity Linked Bonus scheme. It has been 30 days of emoluments, computed on a ceiling of Rs. 7,000 a month, which gives Rs. 6,908 for anyone earning above the ceiling. The order for the accounting year 2024-25 is Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum F. No. 7/24/2007/E III (A) dated 29 September 2025.

How much is the 30 day ad-hoc bonus?

Rs. 6,908. For an employee whose average monthly emoluments exceed the Rs. 7,000 calculation ceiling, the bonus is Rs. 7,000 times 30 divided by 30.4, which is Rs. 6,907.89, rounded to Rs. 6,908. Because the minimum basic pay under the 7th Central Pay Commission is Rs. 18,000, every regular employee is above the ceiling, so Rs. 6,908 is the figure almost everyone receives.

Why is it called ad-hoc and non-productivity-linked?

It is non-productivity-linked because there is no productivity formula behind the number, unlike the Productivity Linked Bonus paid in the Railways, the Department of Posts and defence production, where output is measured against a target. It is ad-hoc because the government fixes a number of days each year by executive order, 30 in recent years, rather than deriving it from a scheme.

Who is eligible for the ad-hoc bonus?

A Group C or non-gazetted Group B employee who was in service on 31 March of the accounting year and has rendered at least six months of continuous service during that year. Employees with between six months and one year of continuous service receive a pro-rata amount, the eligibility period being counted in months rounded to the nearest month. Group A officers and gazetted Group B officers are outside the scheme.

Who is not eligible for the ad-hoc bonus?

Group A officers, gazetted Group B officers, employees covered by a Productivity Linked Bonus scheme, and part-time employees engaged on nominal fixed payment, who are excluded outright by item (k) of the Annexure to the 2024-25 order. Employees on deputation or foreign service with a state government, a union territory government or a public sector undertaking on 31 March are not paid by the lending department either; that liability rests with the borrowing organisation.

Do employees of central autonomous bodies get the ad-hoc bonus?

No. The last order extending the ad-hoc bonus to central autonomous bodies was Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum F. No. 7/22/2008-E.III(A) dated 26 October 2015, which covered the accounting year 2014-15. No extension order has been issued for 2015-16 or any later year, and the government confirmed in an answer to Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 55 on 6 February 2023 that a policy decision had been taken not to extend the ad-hoc bonus to employees of autonomous bodies partly or fully funded by the central government.

Is the ad-hoc bonus paid during leave or suspension?

Leave other than leave without pay counts towards the six-month eligibility period, so half-pay leave, leave not due and study leave do not break it. Extraordinary leave and a period treated as dies non are excluded from the eligibility period, though they do not count as a break in service. For an employee under suspension, subsistence allowance is not emoluments, so eligibility for that period arises only if the employee is reinstated with the benefit of emoluments for the suspension period.

What happens to the ad-hoc bonus on deputation or re-employment?

An employee on deputation or foreign service to a state government, union territory or public sector undertaking on 31 March draws no ad-hoc bonus from the lending department; the borrowing organisation pays under whatever scheme it operates. On reversion during the year, the foreign employer’s bonus plus any central ad-hoc bonus is capped at the amount due under the ad-hoc bonus orders. Re-employment after superannuation counts as fresh employment, with eligibility worked out separately and the combined total capped at the maximum admissible.

How is the ad-hoc bonus calculated for casual labour?

Casual labour who have worked at least 240 days in each year for three years or more, or 206 days a year in offices observing a five day week, are eligible. The bonus is computed on a separate ceiling of Rs. 1,200 a month, so 30 days works out to Rs. 1,200 times 30 divided by 30.4, which is Rs. 1,184.21, rounded to Rs. 1,184. Where actual monthly emoluments fall below Rs. 1,200, the actual figure is used. The requirement of being in employment on 31 March applies to regular employees, not to casual labour.

Is the ad-hoc bonus the same as bonus under the Payment of Bonus Act?

No. The ad-hoc bonus for government servants is an ex-gratia payment granted by executive order, not a statutory right, and the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, which governs bonus in factories and other covered establishments, does not apply to a civil servant. The Act’s minimum of 8.33% and maximum of 20% of wages have no bearing on the ad-hoc bonus.

Is the ad-hoc bonus taxable?

Yes. It is part of salary income in the year of receipt, fully taxable at the applicable slab rate under either the old or the new regime, with tax deducted at source by the drawing and disbursing officer in the month it is paid. No provision of the income tax law exempts it.

Does the ad-hoc bonus count for pension, gratuity or provident fund?

No. Pension and gratuity are computed on emoluments meaning basic pay, so the ad-hoc bonus is outside both, and it is not reckoned for provident fund subscription either. It is a one-time annual payment that leaves the pay structure and every pay-linked entitlement untouched.

Why is the bonus capped at Rs. 7,000 when salaries are much higher?

The calculation ceiling of Rs. 7,000 of monthly emoluments was set with effect from 1 April 2014 by Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 7/4/2014-E.III(A) dated 29 August 2016, raising it from Rs. 3,500, and it has not moved since. The bonus is worked out on average emoluments or the ceiling, whichever is lower, so an employee on Rs. 60,000 a month and one on Rs. 30,000 a month both receive Rs. 6,908.

How much was the ad-hoc bonus before the ceiling was raised in 2014?

Rs. 3,454. On the earlier ceiling of Rs. 3,500 a month, 30 days worked out to Rs. 3,500 times 30 divided by 30.4, which is Rs. 3,453.95. The revision to Rs. 7,000 took effect from 1 April 2014 and applied from the accounting year 2014-15, which doubled the figure to Rs. 6,908.

Has the ad-hoc bonus order for 2025-26 been issued?

Not as on 12 August 2026. The most recent order is Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum F. No. 7/24/2007/E III (A) dated 29 September 2025 for the accounting year 2024-25. The order for an accounting year is issued in the following September or October, timed so payment reaches employees before Dussehra and Diwali, so the 2025-26 order is due in that window.

External references

References

Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure, Office Memorandum F. No. 7/24/2007/E III (A) dated 29 September 2025, “Grant of Non-Productivity Linked Bonus (ad-hoc bonus) to Central Government Employees for the year 2024-25”, paragraphs 1 to 5 and Annexure (30 days of emoluments; calculation ceiling Rs. 7,000; Rs. 7,000 times 30 divided by 30.4 equals Rs. 6,907.89, rounded to Rs. 6,908; casual labour on a Rs. 1,200 ceiling giving Rs. 1,184; eligibility on 31 March 2025 with six months continuous service; pro-rata in months rounded to the nearest month; expenditure from within the sanctioned budget for 2025-26; Article 148(5) consultation for the Indian Audit and Accounts Department).
Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure, Office Memorandum No. 7/4/2014-E.III(A) dated 29 August 2016 (revision of the calculation ceiling for PLB and ad-hoc bonus to Rs. 7,000 from Rs. 3,500, with effect from 1 April 2014, applied from the accounting year 2014-15).
Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure, Office Memorandum F. No. 7/22/2008-E.III(A) dated 26 October 2015 (extension of the 2014-15 ad-hoc bonus orders to autonomous bodies following the central pattern of emoluments and having no bonus, ex-gratia or incentive scheme, expenditure to be met from within existing budgetary provision; the last such extension order issued).
Ministry of Finance, Office Memorandum No. F.14(10)-E.Coord/88 dated 4 October 1988 (clarificatory orders on the operation of the ad-hoc bonus, as amended from time to time, cited in the annual orders up to the order for 2015-16 and since replaced by the Annexure to the annual order).
Comptroller and Auditor General of India, Report No. 6 of 2019, Chapter 9 (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare), paragraph 9.1, “Irregular payment of Ad-hoc Bonus to the employees of JIPMER” (no orders granting ad-hoc bonus to autonomous bodies issued for 2015-16 and 2016-17; irregular payment of Rs. 4.56 crore).
Public Accounts Committee, 62nd Report, 17th Lok Sabha, “Irregular Payment of ad-hoc Bonus”, presented 5 April 2023 (thirteen central autonomous bodies paid Rs. 15.87 crore over 2015-16 to 2017-18 without competent-authority orders; the Asiatic Society, Kolkata accounted for Rs. 38.15 lakh).
Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 55, answered 6 February 2023, Ministry of Education, Department of Higher Education (policy decision taken not to extend the ad-hoc bonus to employees of autonomous bodies partly or fully funded by the central government).
Ministry of Railways, Railway Board order RBE No. 101/2025 (Productivity Linked Bonus equivalent to 78 days of wages for eligible non-gazetted railway employees for the financial year 2024-25, computed as if wages are Rs. 7,000 a month where actual wages exceed that figure, maximum Rs. 17,951).