Charge allowance and current duty

Full charge of another post draws Additional Post Allowance of at least 10% of basic pay under the DoPT order of 8 August 2018. Current charge draws nothing.

Updated 15 August 2026

Charge allowance and current duty describe the additional pay a central government servant draws for holding the charge of another post besides their own, and the rule that decides whether anything is paid at all. Full charge of a higher post draws the pay of that higher post, or 10% of basic pay a month, whichever is more beneficial. Full charge of a post at a similar level draws 10% of basic pay. Current charge of the routine duties of another post draws nothing, whatever its duration. Charge of a lower post draws nothing.

The payment is called the Additional Post Allowance, and its terms are set by Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 2/13/2017-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 8 August 2018, effective from 1 July 2017. That order replaced two separately named departmental payments: the Acting Allowance drawn by Junior Commissioned Officers in the Defence services, and the Dual Charge Allowance drawn by officers in the Indian Railways. Both were abolished by Finance Ministry Resolution No. 11-1/2016-IC dated 6 July 2017, at serial numbers 2 and 52 of Appendix-II.

The statutory framework sits above the allowance and predates it by decades. Fundamental Rule 49, on the combination of appointments, empowers the Central Government to appoint a government servant already holding a post to officiate, as a temporary measure, in one or more other independent posts at one time. Its six clauses decide the pay in each configuration of charge, and the Additional Post Allowance operates inside them rather than in place of them.

The word “charge allowance” survives in Railway and departmental usage, but no allowance of that name exists in the 7th Central Pay Commission inventory of 196 allowances. What exists is the Additional Post Allowance, the officiating pay under Fundamental Rule 49(i), and the specific clause-by-clause treatment set out below.

This article states the rates and the ceiling, maps the six clauses of Fundamental Rule 49, sets out the full-charge and current-charge distinction and why the wording of the appointment order decides it, covers the duration limits, the treatment of a lower post and of a post in another office or cadre, the abolition of the Acting Allowance and the Dual Charge Allowance, the retention of the Fixed Monetary Compensation for Postmen, the effect on pension and on dearness allowance, the tax treatment, and the relationship with Fundamental Rule 35.

Rates and the ceiling

The Additional Post Allowance is paid at one of two rates, both fixed by paragraph 3 of Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 2/13/2017-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 8 August 2018 with effect from 1 July 2017.

Nature of charge	What is paid
Full charge of the duties of a higher post	The pay admissible on regular appointment to the higher post, or 10% of present basic pay a month, whichever is more beneficial
Full charge of the duties of a post on a similar level	10% of present basic pay a month
Current charge, or the routine duties, of an additional post	Nil, irrespective of the duration
Additional charge of a lower post	Nil

In both paid cases the sum of basic pay and the Additional Post Allowance must not exceed the apex pay of Rs. 2,25,000. That figure is not a rate of the allowance but a statutory cap: Department of Personnel and Training Notification No. 4/2/2016-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 12 June 2017, published as G.S.R. 213 in the Gazette of India of the same date, substituted Rs. 2,25,000 into Fundamental Rule 49(iv) with effect from 1 January 2016.

The 10% is calculated on basic pay, meaning the cell of the pay matrix the employee occupies, not on gross salary. An officer at the Level 12 entry cell of Rs. 78,800 who is formally appointed to hold full charge of an identical-level post draws Rs. 7,880 a month as Additional Post Allowance. At the Level 14 entry cell of Rs. 1,44,200 the same charge draws Rs. 14,420.

Where the charge is of a higher post, the comparison is between two numbers. An officer drawing Rs. 78,800 who holds full charge of a post whose regular officiating pay would be Rs. 1,23,100 draws that officiating pay, because it exceeds the alternative of Rs. 7,880. The 10% floor matters where the gap between the two posts is narrow, which on the pay matrix is common between adjacent levels at the upper stages.

Full charge against current charge

Full charge of another post is paid; current charge of its routine duties is not. That single distinction decides every claim under this head, and it is the reason so many additional-charge arrangements produce no money.

Full charge means formal appointment to perform the whole of the duties of the other post, including its statutory and decision-making functions, in addition to the employee’s own duties. Current charge, also called charge of the routine duties, means attending to the usual routine day-to-day work of a non-statutory nature attached to a vacant post.

Fundamental Rule 49(v) states that no additional pay is admissible to a government servant appointed to hold current charge of the routine duties of another post, irrespective of the duration of the additional charge. Paragraph 3(c) of the Office Memorandum of 8 August 2018 repeats the bar in the language of the Additional Post Allowance. Neither provision contains an exception for a long charge, so an officer who looks after the routine work of a vacant post for eleven months draws exactly what an officer who does it for eleven days draws, which is nothing.

What separates the two in practice is the wording of the order, not the workload. Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 4/2/89-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 11 August 1989 records the problem precisely: officers are appointed to hold additional charge of the current duties of another post without the duties being defined in the order, they then perform all the functions of that post including some statutory functions, and no additional remuneration is paid because of the specific language of the appointment order. The mirror-image case in the same order is an officer asked to hold additional charge which implies full charge, but who is never formally appointed to the post, and therefore draws nothing under Fundamental Rule 49.

That 1989 order sets two drafting rules for the appointing office. Where the officer is required to discharge all the duties of the other post including the statutory functions, the case must be processed for the approval of the competent authority and formal orders appointing the officer to the additional post must issue, on which the additional remuneration under Fundamental Rule 49 follows. Where the officer is only required to attend to the usual routine day-to-day work of a non-statutory nature, the office order must state expressly that the officer will perform only those duties and will not be entitled to any additional remuneration, and must specify which duties will and will not be discharged.

The six clauses of Fundamental Rule 49

Fundamental Rule 49 empowers the Central Government to appoint a government servant already holding a post in a substantive or officiating capacity to officiate, as a temporary measure, in one or more other independent posts at one time under the Government. Six clauses then regulate the pay, and the answer changes with the relationship between the posts.

Clause	Configuration	Pay
49(i)	Full charge of a higher post in the same office and the same cadre or line of promotion	Pay admissible on officiating in the higher post, unless reduced under Fundamental Rule 35; no additional pay for duties of a lower post
49(ii)	Dual charge of two posts in the same cadre and same office carrying identical scales	No additional pay, irrespective of the period; any special pay attached to the additional post is allowed
49(iii)	Charge of a post not in the same office, or in the same office but not the same cadre or line of promotion	Pay of the higher post, or the highest post where more than two are held, plus 10% of the presumptive pay of the additional post or posts
49(iv)	Full additional charge of another post	Aggregate of pay and additional pay not to exceed Rs. 2,25,000
49(v)	Current charge of the routine duties of another post	Nil, irrespective of the duration
49(vi)	Posts carrying compensatory or sumptuary allowances	Such allowances as the Central Government may fix, not exceeding the total attached to all the posts

Clause (iii) carries its own duration rule, distinct from the one attached to the Additional Post Allowance. The pay of the higher post plus 10% of the presumptive pay of the additional post is admissible where the additional charge is held for a period exceeding 45 days but not exceeding three months. Where a case requires the charge to run beyond three months, the concurrence of the Department of Personnel and Training must be obtained for the payment of additional pay beyond that period. The 45-day threshold in clause (iii) was substituted for the earlier figure by Department of Personnel and Training Notification No. 4/3/97-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 12 March 1999, published as G.S.R. 208(E) in the Gazette of India dated 15 March 1999 and effective from that date.

Clause (ii) is the reason the Railways once needed a separate allowance. An employee holding dual charge of a second post in the same cadre and the same office on an identical scale of pay draws nothing extra under Fundamental Rule 49, however long the arrangement runs. The Dual Charge Allowance existed because the Railways paid 10% of basic pay in exactly that situation, which Fundamental Rule 49 does not permit, and the 7th Central Pay Commission recorded the difference at paragraph 8.3.8 of its report.

Duration, the 45-day threshold and the gap between charges

The Additional Post Allowance is admissible only where the additional charge exceeds 45 days, under paragraph 3(d) of Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 2/13/2017-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 8 August 2018. A charge of 45 days or fewer draws nothing, and the threshold is on the duration of the charge rather than on the period claimed.

Paragraph 3(e) of the same order fixes three outer limits. The arrangement cannot continue for a particular vacant post for more than one year. It cannot continue for a particular employee for more than six months at a stretch. There must be a minimum gap of one year between two successive such appointments of a particular employee.

The three limits work together to stop additional charge becoming a standing arrangement. A vacant post cannot be run on additional charge indefinitely by rotating officers through it, because the one-year limit attaches to the post and not only to the person. An officer cannot be kept on additional charge by breaking it into consecutive spells, because of the one-year gap. This is the safeguard the 7th Central Pay Commission asked for at paragraph 8.3.10 of its report, where it recorded that compensation for additional duty should be a percentage of basic pay and that proper safeguards should be put in place so that such arrangements are not continued for extensive lengths of time.

Charge of a lower post

No additional pay is admissible for holding additional charge of a lower post, and the rule is stated twice. Paragraph 6 of Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 2/13/2017-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 8 August 2018 says the Additional Post Allowance will not be granted to an employee for holding additional charge of a lower post. The closing words of Fundamental Rule 49(i) say that no additional pay shall be allowed for performing the duties of a lower post.

The Railway position before 1 July 2017 was different, and the difference is instructive. Paragraph 648(a) of the Indian Railway Establishment Manual, Volume I recorded that the grant of the Dual Charge Allowance at the prescribed rate was admissible in all cases irrespective of the two additional posts being of higher, equivalent or lower status. The Office Memorandum of 8 August 2018 removed the lower-post case for Railway officers along with everyone else, because paragraph 6 admits of no departmental exception.

The Acting Allowance and the Dual Charge Allowance, abolished

Two named allowances were abolished as separate allowances with effect from 1 July 2017, by Finance Ministry Resolution No. 11-1/2016-IC dated 6 July 2017, and their eligible employees moved to the Additional Post Allowance.

The Acting Allowance was granted to Junior Commissioned Officers of the Defence services, other than those holding honorary ranks as commissioned officers, who were appointed in officers’ vacancies caused by a shortage of officers rather than by leave, temporary duty or courses of instruction. Paragraph 8.3.3 of the 7th Central Pay Commission report records the pre-revised rates: Rs. 900 a month for appointments tenable by a Captain or equivalent, and Rs. 1,200 a month for appointments tenable by a Major or equivalent. It stands at serial number 2 of Appendix-II to the Resolution of 6 July 2017. Paragraph 4 of the Office Memorandum of 8 August 2018 carries the entitlement forward, granting the Additional Post Allowance to Junior Commissioned Officers of the Army and their equivalents in the Navy and the Air Force for holding appointments of Captain and equivalent and of Major and equivalent.

The Dual Charge Allowance was granted at 10% of basic pay to an officer in the Indian Railways required to hold charge of a post in addition to his own, and paragraph 8.3.4 of the 7th Central Pay Commission report describes it in those terms. It stands at serial number 52 of Appendix-II. Its abolition and replacement was carried into Railway practice by Railway Board letter No. F(E)Spl./2009/FR/1/3 (7th CPC) dated 5 September 2018, circulated as RBE No. 128/2018, which applies the Department of Personnel and Training order of 8 August 2018 to Railway employees mutatis mutandis with effect from 1 July 2017.

Neither allowance was reduced in the process. An officer who drew the Dual Charge Allowance at 10% of basic pay for an identical-level post draws the Additional Post Allowance at 10% of basic pay for the same charge. What changed is that the payment is now available across the central government rather than in one ministry, and that it comes with the 45-day threshold and the one-year and six-month limits attached.

Fixed Monetary Compensation, retained

The Fixed Monetary Compensation paid to Postmen for performing the duties of an absentee Postman was not folded into the Additional Post Allowance, and this is where the recommendation and the decision part company.

The 7th Central Pay Commission recommended at paragraph 8.3.12(f) of its report that a Postman performing the duties of an absentee Postman alone be paid 10% of basic pay a month as Additional Post Allowance, and that two Postmen sharing beats be paid 5% each. The Committee on Allowances rejected that at paragraph 4.6.1 of its report of 27 April 2017, on the Department of Posts case that Postmen handle time-bound duties and that alternative arrangements are made where the absence exceeds 15 days. It recommended that the Fixed Monetary Compensation be retained as a separate allowance, with the existing rates increased by a factor of 2.25, giving Rs. 115 a day for a full beat and Rs. 54 a day for a shared beat against the pre-revised Rs. 50 and Rs. 24. The Committee estimated the benefit at about 15,098 employees and the additional cost at about Rs. 2 crore a year.

Serial number 63 of Appendix-II to the Resolution of 6 July 2017 records the outcome against the recommendation: abolished as a separate allowance in the Commission’s column, retained as a separate allowance and enhanced by a factor of 2.25 in the Committee’s. The Office Memorandum of 8 August 2018 names only the Acting Allowance and the Dual Charge Allowance in its paragraph 2, which is the operative confirmation that Postmen were left out of the new head. The 5% rate that appears in some secondary summaries of the Additional Post Allowance comes from the Commission’s postman proposal at paragraph 8.3.12(f) and was never implemented; no configuration of charge under the Office Memorandum of 8 August 2018 is paid at 5% of basic pay.

The Railways: paragraphs 645 to 650

Railway practice on additional charge sits in Chapter VI of the Indian Railway Establishment Manual, Volume I, Revised Edition 1989, at paragraphs 645 to 650, and paragraph 5 of the Office Memorandum of 8 August 2018 keeps those paragraphs alive so far as they are not modified by the order, along with Railway Board letter dated 19 August 2011.

Paragraph 645(a) empowers General Managers of Indian Railways and officers of equal status directly under the Railway Board to appoint a Railway servant to hold or look after the duties of an additional post and to fix the compensatory allowance, up to six months for officers up to and including the Junior Administrative Grade and three months for officers in the Senior Administrative Grade, provided the dual charge arrangement exceeds 45 days. Paragraph 645(b) requires full justification with the recommendation of the Financial Adviser and Chief Accounts Officer, submitted to the Railway Board, for a Senior Administrative Grade arrangement beyond three months.

Paragraph 646 bars any dual charge allowance for current charge or the routine duties of an additional post, irrespective of duration, in the same terms as Fundamental Rule 49(v). Paragraph 647 gives an officer formally appointed to full charge of a higher post on the same establishment the pay admissible on officiating in that higher post, unless the competent authority reduces it, with no additional pay for the duties of a lower post, which tracks Fundamental Rule 49(i). Paragraph 648(b) requires three things before a proposal is entertained: an essentiality certificate from the controlling officer that the dual charge arrangement is inescapable and absolutely essential, a certificate that the two posts are independent of each other, and the recommendations of the Financial Adviser and Chief Accounts Officer. Paragraph 648(c) allows travelling allowance and daily allowance separately where the two posts have headquarters at different stations, treating the two entitlements as independent. Paragraph 649 excludes holidays prefixed and suffixed to the spell from the computation.

Two figures in that chapter are superseded. The aggregate ceiling of Rs. 80,000 a month in paragraph 648(a), inserted by Railway Board letter No. F(E)Spl.2009/FR/1/3 dated 21 June 2010 as Advance Correction Slip No. 214, is a 6th Central Pay Commission figure, displaced by the apex pay of Rs. 2,25,000 in Fundamental Rule 49(iv) as substituted on 12 June 2017. The 10% of presumptive pay in paragraph 648(a) is displaced by the Additional Post Allowance rates in paragraph 3 of the Office Memorandum of 8 August 2018.

Effect on pension, dearness allowance and house rent allowance

The Additional Post Allowance does not enter the pension calculation for a civil government servant. Rule 31 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 defines emoluments as the basic pay drawn immediately before retirement, together with non-practising allowance where it applies, and excludes every other allowance. An officer who retires while holding additional charge therefore has a pension computed on the pay matrix cell alone.

It does not attract dearness allowance or house rent allowance either. Both are computed as a percentage of basic pay, and paragraph 3 of the Office Memorandum of 8 August 2018 fixes the Additional Post Allowance as a percentage of basic pay without adding it to basic pay. The allowance is a separate line in the pay bill, not an addition to the cell.

One position is genuinely unsettled, and only for Railway servants. Paragraph 650 of the Indian Railway Establishment Manual, Volume I provides that additional pay or presumptive pay in respect of a combination of appointments is to be reckoned as pay as defined in Rule 1303(21)(c)(1) of the Indian Railway Establishment Code, Volume II, Sixth Edition, and will count for pension and other post-retirement benefits. That paragraph was written for a payment structured as special pay. Paragraph 5 of the Office Memorandum of 8 August 2018 continues paragraphs 645 to 650 so far as they are not modified by the order, without stating whether paragraph 650 survives the conversion of the payment into an allowance outside the definition of pay. No clarificatory order has been issued on the point, so the pre-2017 Railway treatment continues to be argued on paragraph 650 and the civil treatment on Rule 31.

Tax treatment

The Additional Post Allowance is taxable in full as salary, at the employee’s slab rate, with tax deducted at source in the month it is paid.

For the tax year 2026-27 the prescribed-allowance exemptions sit in the Table in Schedule III to the Income-tax Act, 2025, read with the Income-tax Rules, 2026 notified by Central Board of Direct Taxes Notification No. 22/2026, G.S.R. 198(E), dated 20 March 2026, which replaced the Income-tax Rules, 1962 with effect from 1 April 2026. No entry in that scheme names the Additional Post Allowance or additional pay on a combination of appointments, and none named the Acting Allowance or the Dual Charge Allowance under Rule 2BB of the repealed 1962 Rules. There is no exemption to claim.

Where the allowance is released as arrears covering an earlier tax year, it is taxed in the year of receipt along with the rest of the salary, and the relief for arrears applies in the ordinary way. The standard deduction applies against gross salary and is unaffected by the composition of that salary.

Posts in public sector undertakings and autonomous bodies

Fundamental Rule 49 does not reach a post in a public sector undertaking or an autonomous body, and no additional pay is admissible for holding charge of one. Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 4/4/99-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 28 January 2000 states the reasoning: the rule empowers the Central Government to appoint a government servant to officiate in other independent posts “under the Government”, and it stipulates the circumstances and extent of additional pay on formal appointment to hold full additional charge of another post under Government. Neither the appointment of a government servant to hold full additional charge of a post in such a body nor the additional pay for it is permissible under the rule.

The same order advises that posts in public sector undertakings and autonomous bodies be filled only by regular incumbents, and that appointing a government servant to hold additional charge of such a post be resorted to in rare and exceptional circumstances as a stop-gap arrangement for a short period. The clarification is repeated at item (iii) of Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 4/2/2014-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 16 April 2015, and item (i) of that order adds that the appointment of an employee of an autonomous body or public sector undertaking to another such body is governed by the rules of the individual’s own employer rather than by Fundamental Rule 49.

Selection for additional charge

Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. F. No. 4/2/2014-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 16 April 2015 sets nine clarifications on how a ministry or department must process a case for giving additional charge, issued to ensure that Fundamental Rule 49 is applied in the public interest and that its spirit is maintained.

Appointments under the rule must meet short-term requirements only, and it must be ensured that the provisions are not used to confer promotional benefits indirectly in lieu of promotion. That is the governing purpose, and the remaining items follow from it. No occasion should arise for appointing a government servant to a post next above, or higher than the post next in hierarchy, and such appointments may not be made without the approval of the Department of Personnel and Training. Though an appointment under Fundamental Rule 49(i) is not a promotion, the government servant appointed gets the pay of the higher post, so while strict seniority need not be followed in a stop-gap arrangement, as far as possible the senior-most officer holding the lower post in the department should be appointed, with suitability assessed and the person most suited appointed where the post requires a specialised skill, experience or training.

Two items act as bars. No person facing disciplinary proceedings, or otherwise unsuitable, for example a person with an adverse entry in a recent APAR, should be given additional charge. Orders of appointment may be issued only after obtaining the approval of the authority competent to make appointments to the post. The order also directs that the Ministry of Finance instructions on economy in administrative expenditure, Office Memorandum No. 7(7)-E.Coord./93 dated 3 May 1993 read with Office Memorandum No. 7(4)/E.Coord.(I)/2001 dated 27 March 2001, be kept in view so that approval for the revival of a post is obtained where necessary before the additional charge is assigned.

Relation to Fundamental Rule 35 officiating pay

Fundamental Rule 49(i) allows the government servant the pay admissible on officiating in the higher post, “unless the Competent Authority reduces his officiating pay under Rule 35”. Fundamental Rule 35 is therefore built into the charge rule rather than sitting beside it, and it is the only limit on the officiating-pay branch of the Additional Post Allowance apart from the apex cap of Rs. 2,25,000.

The ceiling has nothing to bite on where the allowance is drawn as 10% of basic pay, because no officiating pay is being drawn in that case. The choice under paragraph 3(a) of the Office Memorandum of 8 August 2018 is between two computations, and the employee takes whichever is more beneficial. Where the higher post’s officiating pay is the more beneficial figure, Fundamental Rule 35 governs how far it may rise; where 10% of basic pay is the more beneficial figure, the calculation runs off the employee’s own pay matrix cell and Fundamental Rule 35 is not engaged.

Neither route is pay fixation. The additional charge does not alter the employee’s own post, level or annual increment, does not count as service in the higher grade for promotion or for the Modified Assured Career Progression scheme, and stops on the day the charge ends.

Bearing on the 8th Central Pay Commission

The 8th Central Pay Commission was constituted by Resolution dated 3 November 2025, and no recommendation, report or figure on the Additional Post Allowance exists. Any rate stated for the allowance under the 8th Commission is speculation.

What can be said is the shape of the ground it starts from. The 7th Central Pay Commission found three separate departmental payments for the same act of holding an additional post, at three different rates in three different forms, and replaced them with one head expressed as a percentage of basic pay with a stated minimum duration and stated outer limits. A percentage-of-basic-pay rate re-prices itself on every revision of the pay matrix, so the Additional Post Allowance does not need a fresh rate order in the way that the Rs. 900 and Rs. 1,200 Acting Allowance did. The live questions for the next Commission are therefore whether 10% remains the right proportion and whether the Rs. 2,25,000 aggregate cap moves with the apex pay, not whether the head survives.

In force today

Additional pay for holding the charge of another post is governed by Fundamental Rule 49 on the combination of appointments and by Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 2/13/2017-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 8 August 2018, effective 1 July 2017. Full charge of a higher post draws the pay admissible on regular appointment to that post or 10% of basic pay a month, whichever is more beneficial. Full charge of a post at a similar level draws 10% of basic pay a month. In both cases basic pay plus the allowance must not exceed the apex pay of Rs. 2,25,000. Current charge, or charge of the routine duties, of another post draws no additional pay whatever its duration, and additional charge of a lower post draws none either. The allowance needs the charge to exceed 45 days; a post may be held on additional charge for up to one year and an employee for up to six months at a stretch, with a one-year gap between successive charges. The Acting Allowance in the Defence services and the Dual Charge Allowance in the Railways were abolished from 1 July 2017 and folded into this head; the Fixed Monetary Compensation for Postmen was retained separately at Rs. 115 and Rs. 54 a day.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is charge allowance?

Charge allowance is the informal name for the additional pay a government servant draws for holding the charge of another post besides their own. Since 1 July 2017 the payment is called the Additional Post Allowance, introduced by Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 2/13/2017-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 8 August 2018. It is drawn at the pay of the higher post or 10% of basic pay a month, whichever is more beneficial, for full charge of a higher post, and at 10% of basic pay for full charge of a post at a similar level. The two separately named predecessors, the Acting Allowance in the Defence forces and the Dual Charge Allowance in the Railways, were abolished with effect from the same date.

How much is the Additional Post Allowance?

For full charge of the duties of a higher post, the Additional Post Allowance is the pay that would be admissible on regular appointment to the higher post, or 10% of the present basic pay a month, whichever is more beneficial. For full charge of a post at a similar level it is 10% of the present basic pay a month. In both cases the sum of basic pay and the allowance must not exceed the apex pay of Rs. 2,25,000, the figure substituted into Fundamental Rule 49(iv) by Department of Personnel and Training Notification No. 4/2/2016-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 12 June 2017.

What is the difference between full charge and current charge?

Full charge means formal appointment to perform the whole of the duties of another post, including its statutory and decision-making functions, in addition to one’s own. Current charge, or charge of the routine duties, means attending to the day-to-day non-statutory work of a vacant post. The difference decides the money. Full charge of a higher or similar post draws the Additional Post Allowance at the rates in the Office Memorandum of 8 August 2018. Current charge draws no additional pay at all under Fundamental Rule 49(v), irrespective of the duration of the additional charge.

Is any allowance paid for current charge of routine duties?

No. Fundamental Rule 49(v) states that no additional pay is admissible to a government servant appointed to hold current charge of the routine duties of another post, irrespective of the duration of the additional charge, and paragraph 3(c) of Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 2/13/2017-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 8 August 2018 repeats the bar for the Additional Post Allowance. An employee asked to look after the routine work of a vacant post for six months therefore draws nothing extra for it.

What are the time limits on holding additional charge?

Paragraph 3(d) of Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 2/13/2017-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 8 August 2018 makes the Additional Post Allowance admissible only where the additional charge exceeds 45 days. Paragraph 3(e) bars the arrangement continuing for a particular vacant post for more than one year, and for a particular employee for more than six months at a stretch, and requires a minimum gap of one year between two successive such appointments of the same employee.

What is FR 49?

Fundamental Rule 49, on the combination of appointments, empowers the Central Government to appoint a government servant already holding a post in a substantive or officiating capacity to officiate, as a temporary measure, in one or more other independent posts at one time under the Government. Its six clauses regulate the pay: clause (i) gives officiating pay for full charge of a higher post in the same office and cadre, clause (ii) denies additional pay for dual charge of an identical-scale post in the same cadre and office, clause (iii) gives the higher post’s pay plus 10% of the presumptive pay of the additional post where the posts are in different offices or cadres, clause (iv) caps the aggregate at Rs. 2,25,000, clause (v) denies any pay for current charge of routine duties, and clause (vi) governs compensatory and sumptuary allowances.

Is additional pay admissible for holding charge of a lower post?

No. Paragraph 6 of Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 2/13/2017-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 8 August 2018 states that the Additional Post Allowance will not be granted to an employee for holding additional charge of a lower post. Fundamental Rule 49(i) says the same thing in its closing words, that no additional pay shall be allowed for performing the duties of a lower post.

Which allowances were abolished and folded into the Additional Post Allowance?

Two. The Acting Allowance granted to Junior Commissioned Officers of the Defence services, at serial number 2 of Appendix-II to Finance Ministry Resolution No. 11-1/2016-IC dated 6 July 2017, and the Dual Charge Allowance granted to officers in the Indian Railways, at serial number 52 of the same Appendix. The 7th Central Pay Commission had also recommended folding in the Fixed Monetary Compensation paid to Postmen, at serial number 63, but the Committee on Allowances recommended retaining it as a separate allowance enhanced by a factor of 2.25, and the Office Memorandum of 8 August 2018 names only the first two.

Do Postmen draw the Additional Post Allowance for an absentee beat?

No. The Fixed Monetary Compensation was retained as a separate allowance rather than subsumed, on the Department of Posts case recorded at paragraph 4.6.1 of the Committee on Allowances report of 27 April 2017. The Committee applied a factor of 2.25 to the pre-revised rates of Rs. 50 and Rs. 24 a day, giving Rs. 115 a day where one Postman performs the duty of an absentee Postman by combination of duties and Rs. 54 a day where two Postmen share the beat. The 7th Central Pay Commission proposal at paragraph 8.3.12(f) of its report, of 10% and 5% of basic pay a month, was not implemented.

Does the Additional Post Allowance count for pension, dearness allowance or house rent allowance?

Not for a central government pension. Rule 31 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 defines emoluments as the basic pay drawn immediately before retirement together with non-practising allowance, and excludes every other allowance. Dearness allowance and house rent allowance are both computed as a percentage of basic pay, and the Office Memorandum of 8 August 2018 fixes the Additional Post Allowance as a percentage of basic pay without adding it to basic pay, so neither is drawn on it. The Railway position is narrower and unsettled: paragraph 650 of the Indian Railway Establishment Manual, Volume I reckons additional pay on a combination of appointments as pay counting for pension, and paragraph 5 of the 8 August 2018 order continues paragraphs 645 to 650 so far as they are not modified by it, without saying whether paragraph 650 survives the conversion of the payment into an allowance.

Is the Additional Post Allowance taxable?

Yes, in full, as salary. For the tax year 2026-27 the prescribed-allowance exemptions sit in the Table in Schedule III to the Income-tax Act, 2025, read with the Income-tax Rules, 2026 notified by Central Board of Direct Taxes Notification No. 22/2026, G.S.R. 198(E), dated 20 March 2026. No entry in that scheme names the Additional Post Allowance, and none named its predecessors under Rule 2BB of the repealed Income-tax Rules, 1962. It is added to gross salary and taxed at the employee’s slab rate, with tax deducted at source in the month it is paid.

Can a government servant hold additional charge of a post in a public sector undertaking or an autonomous body?

Additional pay for it is not permissible. Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 4/4/99-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 28 January 2000 records that Fundamental Rule 49 empowers appointment to other independent posts under the Government, and that neither the appointment of a government servant to hold full additional charge of a post in a public sector undertaking or an autonomous body nor additional pay for it is permissible under the rule. The order advises that such posts be filled by regular incumbents and that additional charge be resorted to only in rare and exceptional circumstances, as a stop-gap for a short period.

Who may be given additional charge of a post?

Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 4/2/2014-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 16 April 2015 lays down nine clarifications. Additional charge must meet short-term requirements only and must not be used to confer promotional benefits indirectly. No occasion should arise for appointing a government servant to a post above the one next in hierarchy without the approval of the Department of Personnel and Training. As far as possible the senior-most officer holding the lower post should be appointed, subject to suitability and to any specialised skill the post requires. No person facing disciplinary proceedings, or otherwise unsuitable, for example with an adverse entry in a recent APAR, should be given additional charge. Orders may issue only after the approval of the authority competent to make appointments to the post.

What happens if the appointment order does not say whether the charge is full or current?

The employee is likely to end up performing the full duties without the allowance, which is the defect Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 4/2/89-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 11 August 1989 was issued to cure. That order records that officers appointed to hold additional charge of current duties often perform all the functions of the other post, including statutory functions, yet draw nothing because of the language of the appointment order. It directs that where all the duties including statutory functions are to be discharged, formal orders of appointment to the additional post should be issued so that the additional remuneration under Fundamental Rule 49 follows, and that where only routine day-to-day non-statutory work is intended, the office order must say so expressly and must specify which duties will and will not be discharged.

How does the Additional Post Allowance relate to FR 35 officiating pay?

Fundamental Rule 49(i) allows the pay admissible on officiating in the higher post, unless the competent authority reduces the officiating pay under Fundamental Rule 35. The two rules therefore operate together: FR 49 authorises the additional charge and its pay, and FR 35 sets the ceiling on what officiating pay may be drawn. Where the Additional Post Allowance is taken as 10% of basic pay rather than as the higher post’s pay, the FR 35 ceiling has nothing to bite on, because no officiating pay is being drawn.

External references

References

Fundamental Rule 49, combination of appointments, clauses (i) to (vi), as consolidated by the Department of Personnel and Training in its instructions on the combination of appointments updated to 30 September 2022.
Department of Personnel and Training Notification No. 4/3/97-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 12 March 1999, published as G.S.R. 208(E) in the Gazette of India dated 15 March 1999, substituting the 45-day period in Fundamental Rule 49(iii) with effect from that date.
Department of Personnel and Training Notification No. 4/2/2016-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 12 June 2017, published as G.S.R. 213 in the Gazette of India dated 12 June 2017, substituting Rs. 2,25,000 as the aggregate ceiling in Fundamental Rule 49(iv) with effect from 1 January 2016.
Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 2/13/2017-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 8 August 2018: grant of Additional Post Allowance and abolition of the existing Acting Allowance and Dual Charge Allowance, with the rates in paragraph 3(a) and 3(b), the bar on current charge in paragraph 3(c), the 45-day threshold in paragraph 3(d), the duration limits in paragraph 3(e), the Junior Commissioned Officer entitlement in paragraph 4, the saving of Railway provisions in paragraph 5, the bar on a lower post in paragraph 6, and the effective date of 1 July 2017 in paragraph 7.
Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure Resolution No. 11-1/2016-IC dated 6 July 2017, Appendix-II, serial numbers 2 (Acting Allowance), 52 (Dual Charge Allowance) and 63 (Fixed Monetary Compensation).
Report of the Seventh Central Pay Commission, paragraphs 8.3.2 to 8.3.12, on the allowances for holding additional charge and the recommended Additional Post Allowance.
Report of the Committee on Allowances, 27 April 2017, paragraph 4.6.1, retaining the Fixed Monetary Compensation as a separate allowance enhanced by a factor of 2.25 to Rs. 115 a day for a full beat and Rs. 54 a day for a shared beat.
Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 4/2/89-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 11 August 1989: guidelines on additional charge of the current duties of another post, and the wording required in the appointment order.
Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 4/4/99-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 28 January 2000: no additional pay for holding additional charge of posts in public sector undertakings and autonomous bodies.
Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. F. No. 4/2/2014-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 16 April 2015: nine clarifications on the application of Fundamental Rule 49.
Railway Board letter No. F(E)Spl./2009/FR/1/3 (7th CPC) dated 5 September 2018, circulated as RBE No. 128/2018, applying the Additional Post Allowance to Railway employees with effect from 1 July 2017.
Indian Railway Establishment Manual, Volume I, Revised Edition 1989, paragraphs 645 to 650, on the grant of dual charge allowance and the treatment of additional pay on a combination of appointments.
CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021, Rule 31, defining emoluments for the pension calculation.
Income-tax Act, 2025 (Act No. 30 of 2025), in force 1 April 2026, Schedule III (prescribed allowances); and Central Board of Direct Taxes Notification No. 22/2026, G.S.R. 198(E), dated 20 March 2026, notifying the Income-tax Rules, 2026 with effect from 1 April 2026.