Concordance table

A concordance table is one of a set of 58 official look-up tables that map a pre-2016 pensioner’s old pay to the corresponding cell of the 7th CPC pay matrix, so that a pension fixed under an earlier pay commission can be revised by notional pay fixation. They were issued by the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare under Office Memorandum F. No. 38/37/2016-P&PW(A) dated 6 July 2017, and they deliver a revised pension of 50% of the notional pay as on 1 January 2016 and a revised family pension of 30%.

Without the tables, revising the pension of someone who retired in 1994 would mean re-running that person’s pay fixation forward through every intervening pay commission, from the 4th to the 5th, the 5th to the 6th, and the 6th to the 7th, one stage at a time. The concordance tables pre-compute that chain, so a pension-disbursing bank or a Pay and Accounts Officer can read the revised figure from a single row.

The tables are a look-up device, not a rule. Paragraph 4 of the 6 July 2017 order provides that where a table is inconsistent with the relevant rules or instructions, the notional pay and pension are to be fixed under the rules applicable to fixation of pay in the intervening pay commission periods, and three tables were in fact substituted by corrigenda after issue.

This article covers what the tables contain, how they are numbered, the three orders that created them, worked examples taken from the government’s own illustrations, the comparison against the 2.57 route, the floor and the ceilings, the categories of pensioner the tables do not reach, the railway and armed forces counterparts, and how the pensioner’s method differs from the fitment of a serving employee. For the pension formula itself, see pension calculation and central government pension.

What a concordance table contains

Each concordance table is keyed to one grade pay or pre-revision pay scale, and each of its rows carries a single pre-revised pay stage across to a 7th CPC level and cell, a notional pay as on 1 January 2016, and the revised pension and family pension computed from that notional pay. Revised pension is 50% of the notional pay and revised family pension is 30%, or 50% where the enhanced family pension is still running, under paragraph 4 of the Office Memorandum dated 12 May 2017. Every amount is rounded up to the next rupee.

The columns are the pay commissions. A row begins at the pay drawn at retirement in the 4th, 5th or 6th CPC scale, carries that stage through the fixation formula of each intervening commission, and ends on the pay matrix. The output is always an actual cell of the pay matrix, because pension revision places the pensioner in the level corresponding to the pay band and grade pay at which the person retired or died.

That last point is what makes the tables usable by a clerk rather than an auditor. The row is the whole calculation.

Table numbering and coverage

Tables 1 to 4 cover the Group D pay scales carrying grade pay of Rs. 1,300, Rs. 1,400, Rs. 1,600 and Rs. 1,650, and Tables 5 to 8 cover pensioners who retired during the 6th CPC period after upgradation to grade pay Rs. 1,800, under paragraph 3 of the Office Memorandum dated 6 July 2017. The series then climbs by grade pay through the pay bands and ends at the two single-post scales.

Two grades share a table range where the 4th and 5th CPC scales feeding them merged into one 6th CPC grade pay, which is why the count of tables (58) exceeds neither the count of grade pays nor the count of levels cleanly. The practical instruction in paragraph 3 is to apply the appropriate table for the grade held at retirement, and the grade at retirement is on the Pension Payment Order.

The three orders that created the tables

Three Office Memoranda of the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare, all under file F. No. 38/37/2016-P&PW(A), built the concordance route in sequence between August 2016 and July 2017.

The Office Memorandum No. 38/37/2016-P&PW(A)(ii) dated 4 August 2016 gave the first and quicker route: multiply the pension as already fixed under the 6th CPC by 2.57. It needs nothing beyond the pension figure printed on the Pension Payment Order, which is why it was paid first to every pensioner. It is a distinct instrument from the Rule 7 fitment factor of the same value, and the two are routinely confused.

The Office Memorandum dated 12 May 2017 introduced the notional-pay method and the decisive comparison. Paragraph 4 provides that the pension and family pension of all central civil pensioners, including those of the Central Armed Police Forces, who retired or died before 1 January 2016 be revised with effect from that date by notionally fixing pay in the 7th CPC pay matrix in the level corresponding to the scale or grade pay at which they retired, with revised pension at 50% of the notional pay and family pension at 30%. Paragraph 5 grants the higher of the two formulations, and provides that where the amount already being paid under the 4 August 2016 order is the greater, that amount is treated as the revised pension from 1 January 2016. It issued after a committee headed by the Secretary of the department found the 7th CPC’s own increment-counting formulation unworkable, a finding the Cabinet recorded on 3 May 2017.

The Office Memorandum dated 6 July 2017 enclosed Concordance Tables No. 1 to 58. The tables were built from the Department of Expenditure fitment tables across the 4th to 5th, 5th to 6th and 6th to 7th pay commission periods, and the order issued with that department’s concurrence recorded at Diary No. 1(13)/EV/2017 dated 5 July 2017. It is addressed to all ministries and departments, the Controller General of Accounts, the Comptroller and Auditor General, and the Central Pension Accounting Office.

Worked examples

The first illustration annexed to the Office Memorandum dated 12 May 2017 takes a government servant who retired on 31 December 1984 and carries the pay across three commissions to a revised pension of Rs. 11,550 a month. The notional pay scale as on 1 January 1986 is Rs. 975 to 1,660 with a pay of Rs. 1,210; that becomes Rs. 3,710 in the scale Rs. 3,200 to 4,900 as on 1 January 1996, Rs. 8,910 in PB-1 with grade pay Rs. 2,000 as on 1 January 2006, and Rs. 23,100 in Level 3 of the pay matrix as on 1 January 2016. Pension is 50% of Rs. 23,100, which is Rs. 11,550. Family pension at 30% works out to Rs. 6,930 and is raised to the floor of Rs. 9,000.

The four annexed cases show the notional-pay route winning in every one of them, which is why the department pressed ministries to complete the revision on top priority rather than leave pensioners on the 2.57 figure.

A simpler case shows how a single row is read. A pensioner who retired in the 6th CPC pay band PB-2 with grade pay Rs. 4,200 at the entry stage drew a pre-revised basic pay of Rs. 13,500, that is pay in the pay band of Rs. 9,300 plus grade pay of Rs. 4,200. The table for grade pay Rs. 4,200 maps to Level 6; the row for Rs. 13,500 gives the notional pay as on 1 January 2016 as Rs. 35,400, the first cell of Level 6; and the revised pension is 50% of Rs. 35,400, which is Rs. 17,700 a month, with family pension of Rs. 10,620. This example is clean because the pensioner sat at the entry stage. For a higher stage the row itself gives the exact cell, and it should be read off rather than derived by multiplying the old pay by a single factor, because the fixation runs stage by stage across three commissions.

Comparison with the 2.57 route

The concordance table figure is granted only where it exceeds the pension already revised by the 2.57 multiplication, under paragraph 5 of the Office Memorandum dated 12 May 2017. The comparison is compulsory in both directions: where the 4 August 2016 figure is the higher, it stands as the revised pension from 1 January 2016 and the table is set aside for that pensioner.

The two are not alternatives the pensioner elects between. Both are computed and the office pays the greater, which is why a revision that applies only one formulation is defective even when the arithmetic inside it is correct.

Floor of Rs. 9,000 and the upper ceilings

A revised pension below Rs. 9,000 a month is raised to Rs. 9,000, and the additional pension payable to old pensioners sits outside that floor, under paragraph 8 of the Office Memorandum dated 12 May 2017. The upper ceilings are 50% and 30% of the highest pay in government of Rs. 2,50,000 with effect from 1 January 2016, which gives Rs. 1,25,000 for pension and Rs. 75,000 for family pension. These are the same limits that apply to a pension fixed at retirement today, so a revised pension and a freshly fixed one sit on the same scale, and they are covered in minimum and maximum pension.

The floor does most of its work on family pension rather than on pension, because family pension is 30% of the notional pay against 50% for pension. In the first and third of the government’s own illustrations the family pension computed at 30% came to Rs. 6,930 and Rs. 8,880 and both were lifted to Rs. 9,000.

Exclusions from the notional-pay route

Paragraph 11 of the Office Memorandum dated 12 May 2017 excludes two classes of pensioner from the concordance table route entirely: those drawing compulsory retirement pension under Rule 40 and those drawing compassionate allowance under Rule 41 of the CCS (Pension) Rules. Both categories continue to be revised under the 2.57 instructions of the 4 August 2016 order, because in each case the amount is a discretionary fraction of a full pension rather than a pension computed from pay, so there is no pay stage for a table to carry forward. The rule numbering survived the recast of the rules: Rule 40 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 still carries compulsory retirement pension and Rule 41 still carries the compassionate allowance.

Three further exclusions sit elsewhere in the same order. Paragraph 20 puts retired High Court and Supreme Court judges and other constitutional or statutory authorities outside its scope, their pensions being governed by separate rules. Paragraph 12 revises the pension of those drawing a monthly pension on permanent absorption in a public sector undertaking or autonomous body, but defers pensioners who took a lump sum on absorption and now draw a one-third restored pension to separate orders. Paragraph 19 leaves armed forces pensioners to the Ministry of Defence.

Paragraph 19 also settles two questions of scope in the other direction. The order applies to pensioners under the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972 and the corresponding rules for railway pensioners and members of the All India Services, including Indian Civil Service officers who retired on or after 1 January 1973, and it covers a pensioner whose entitlement began on 1 January 2016 following a retirement or death on 31 December 2015.

Retirees from before 1 January 1986

For a government servant who retired or died before 1 January 1986, the concordance table is entered at the notional pay as on 1 January 1986 rather than at the pay actually drawn at retirement. Paragraph 2 of the Office Memorandum dated 6 July 2017 directs that the tables be used on that 1986 figure, fixed under Office Memorandum No. 45/86/97-P&PW(D)(iii) dated 10 February 1998, and paragraph 7 of the 12 May 2017 order treats the 1986 notional pay and scale as the pay and scale of the government servant for the purpose of the further calculation.

The reason is arithmetic rather than policy. The 1998 exercise had already reconstructed a 4th CPC pay for every pre-1986 pensioner and treated it as average emoluments, so the 2017 tables begin from a figure that already exists on the file instead of reaching back into records from the 3rd CPC period. The first of the four illustrations annexed to the 12 May 2017 order is exactly such a case: a retirement on 31 December 1984, entered at a notional 1986 scale of Rs. 975 to 1,660.

Railway, All India Services and armed forces counterparts

Railway and All India Services pensioners use the same 58 tables; armed forces pensioners use a different set issued by the Ministry of Defence. Railway Board letter No. 2016/F(E)III/1(1)/7 dated 11 July 2017, circulated as RBE No. 66/2017 and PC-VII No. 22/2017, records that the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare instructions and the concordance tables of 6 July 2017 apply mutatis mutandis on the railways, and maps the Railway Board equivalents of the underlying orders, including its own letter of 22 May 2017 for the 12 May 2017 method order. Defence civilian pensioners are covered by the DoPPW tables through the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pensions) circular series.

The armed forces track is separate because the reckonable emoluments are wider. Ministry of Defence letter No. 17(01)/2017(02)/D(Pension/Policy) dated 5 September 2017 applied the notional pay method to pre-2016 armed forces pensioners, and the concordance tables followed by letter of the same number dated 17 October 2018. Under those orders the notional pay from the matrix is topped up with the revised rates of military service pay, non-practising allowance where applicable, and X group pay and classification allowance for JCOs and other ranks, and the total is the notional reckonable emolument as on 1 January 2016 on which the pension is computed. Notional pay is fixed by the record offices and attached pay accounts offices for JCOs and other ranks, and by PCDA(O) Pune, the Naval Pay Office Mumbai and the Air Force Central Accounts Office for commissioned officers of the three services. Pre-1986 commissioned officer cases start from the notional pay as on 1 January 1986 fixed under letter No. 1(3)/98/D(Pen/Policy) dated 27 May 1998. The armed forces revision runs alongside One Rank One Pension rather than replacing it.

Dearness relief, commutation and the additional pension after 80

The figure a concordance table produces is basic pension, and three adjustments sit outside it. Dearness relief is paid on top at the rate in force, 60% from 1 January 2026, and paragraph 9 of the Office Memorandum dated 12 May 2017 makes the revised amount the basic pension from 1 January 2016, inclusive of the relief sanctioned from that date and eligible for every revision after it.

Where the pensioner had commuted a portion, paragraph 14 requires the commuted portion to be deducted at the time of monthly disbursement, because the consolidated figure the table gives is the full pension before commutation. The additional pension for age continues on the revised basic pension at 20% from 80 years, 30% from 85, 40% from 90, 50% from 95 and 100% at 100 years, under paragraph 15, and it is shown as a distinct line in the Pension Payment Order with dearness relief admissible on it. A revised pension of Rs. 10,000 for a pensioner over 80 is therefore shown as basic pension Rs. 10,000 plus additional pension Rs. 2,000.

Who fixes the notional pay and issues the revised authority

Paragraph 18 of the Office Memorandum dated 12 May 2017 puts the duty on the Head of Department and the Pay and Accounts Office attached to the office from which the government servant retired or was last working before death. They fix the notional pay from the service records they hold, revise the pension with effect from 1 January 2016, and issue a revised pension payment authority. The pension sanctioning authority is required to press the Head of Office to complete the notional fixation at the earliest.

The revised authority is issued under the existing Pension Payment Order number and travels to the pension disbursing authority through the same channel as the original PPO, so the pensioner keeps the same PPO number and the same disbursing bank. The Central Pension Accounting Office built an e-revision system to move these cases in volume rather than one file at a time. A pensioner checking the outcome is looking for a revised authority against the old number, not a new order, and the wider process is set out in revision of pension.

Arrears from 1 January 2016

Arrears on a concordance table revision run from 1 January 2016 and no earlier, and what has already been paid is set off against them. Paragraph 17 of the Office Memorandum dated 12 May 2017 bars any arrears for the period before 1 January 2016 and requires that both the arrears and the revised pension already paid under the 4 August 2016 order be adjusted in computing what becomes due.

The practical effect is that the pensioner receives the gap between the two formulations rather than the whole revised pension for the intervening years. In the first illustration annexed to the order, the 2.57 route had already paid Rs. 10,771 a month, so the arrears represent the difference against Rs. 11,550, which is Rs. 779 a month plus the dearness relief on it. Recovery of an overpayment in the reverse case does not arise, because paragraph 5 protects the higher amount already being paid. Pension arrears generally follow the same pattern.

Corrigenda to Tables 29, 51 and 52

Three of the 58 tables were substituted after issue, and a revision that still uses a superseded version gives the wrong pension. A corrigendum dated 13 September 2017 substituted Tables No. 51 and 52, correcting entries for pre-revised pay Rs. 56,050 at 6th CPC grade pay Rs. 10,000, which is Level 14. A corrigendum dated 18 June 2020 substituted Table No. 29, correcting entries for pre-revised pay Rs. 21,820 at grade pay Rs. 5,400, which is Level 9.

The corrigenda are the reason paragraph 4 of the 6 July 2017 order matters rather than reading as boilerplate. That paragraph provides that where a table is inconsistent with the relevant rules or instructions, the notional pay and pension are fixed under the rules applicable to fixation of pay in the intervening pay commission periods. A pensioner who can show that the row produces a figure the fixation rules would not is entitled to the rule-based figure, and the two corrigenda are documented instances of exactly that mismatch.

Difference from serving-employee fixation

A serving employee on 1 January 2016 was fixed in one step; a pre-2016 pensioner is reconstructed through three commissions. Rule 7 of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016, notified as G.S.R. 721(E) on 25 July 2016, multiplies the existing basic pay by the fitment factor of 2.57 and places the result at the equal or next higher cell in the applicable level. That is a one-step conversion of a live pay figure, and it produces pay the employee actually draws.

The pensioner’s notional pay is reconstructed forward through each intervening pay commission’s own fixation rules to arrive at a 1 January 2016 figure the person never drew, used only to compute a revised pension. The concordance table pre-computes that multi-commission reconstruction. The 2.57 fitment factor of Rule 7 and the 2.57 multiplier of the 4 August 2016 pension order share a number and nothing else: one converts serving pay, the other converts an already-fixed pension, and they were notified eleven months apart by different departments. The distinction between a notional and a monetary fixation is developed in notional pay fixation and pay fixation.

Relation to the pay matrix and the index of rationalisation

Because a concordance table always hands back an actual matrix cell, the index of rationalisation is built into its answer without the pensioner ever being multiplied by it. The Level 6 notional pay of Rs. 35,400 is the 6th CPC entry pay of Rs. 13,500 multiplied by the Level 6 index of 2.62 and rounded, a calculation the 7th Central Pay Commission did once when it drew the matrix. The pensioner reaches that figure only through the cell the table points to.

The concordance table, the pay matrix and the index of rationalisation are three views of one structure: the index builds the cell, the matrix holds it, and the table routes a pensioner to it. This is also why a table cannot produce a figure between two cells. Every notional pay in every row is a cell value, and any figure that is not a cell value is an error in the row rather than a fine distinction in the fixation.

Common errors

• Applying only one formulation. Paragraph 5 of the 12 May 2017 order requires the higher of the 2.57 route and the notional-pay route, and applying one alone can under-fix the pension.
• Treating the table as final over the rules. Paragraph 4 of the 6 July 2017 order says the fixation rules prevail where a table conflicts, and the corrigenda of 13 September 2017 and 18 June 2020 prove the tables carried errors.
• Using a superseded table. Tables 51 and 52 were substituted on 13 September 2017 and Table 29 on 18 June 2020.
• Running a Rule 40 or Rule 41 case through a table. Paragraph 11 keeps compulsory-retirement pension and compassionate allowance on the 4 August 2016 route.
• Entering a pre-1986 case at the pay drawn at retirement. Paragraph 2 of the 6 July 2017 order enters it at the notional pay as on 1 January 1986.
• Adding dearness relief inside the table. The table gives basic pension; dearness relief at 60% from 1 January 2026 is added afterwards.
• Forgetting the Rs. 9,000 floor on family pension, where 30% of the notional pay frequently falls below it.
• Deriving the notional pay by a single multiplier. The fixation runs stage by stage across three commissions, so the row is read rather than computed.
• Confusing the 2.57 fitment factor for serving employees under Rule 7 with the 2.57 pension multiplier of the 4 August 2016 order.

Position under the 8th Central Pay Commission

No 8th CPC concordance table exists. The 8th Central Pay Commission was constituted in November 2025 and has not reported, so no fitment factor, no minimum pension, no revised matrix and no table can be stated as fact, and any figure attributed to it is a projection.

The 7th CPC sequence is the guide to when tables would appear. The pay revision took effect on 1 January 2016, the 2.57 pension route was notified on 4 August 2016, the notional-pay method followed on 12 May 2017, and the tables came on 6 July 2017, nearly eighteen months after the effective date. Concordance tables are the last instrument in the chain because they cannot be drawn until both the new matrix and the pension method are settled.

Related Articles

• Pension calculation
• Notional pay fixation
• Revision of pension
• Pre-2016 pensioners pension revision
• Central government pension
• Pay matrix
• Index of rationalisation
• CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016
• CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021
• Pay fixation
• Fitment factor
• Grade pay
• Pay band
• Family pension
• Enhanced family pension
• Minimum and maximum pension
• Additional pension in old age
• Commutation of pension
• Pension arrears
• Pension Payment Order
• Central Pension Accounting Office
• Compulsory retirement
• Compassionate allowance
• All India Services
• Military service pay
• One Rank One Pension
• Defence pay matrix
• Old Pension Scheme
• Dearness relief
• Dearness allowance
• Minimum pay
• 7th Central Pay Commission
• 6th Central Pay Commission
• 8th Central Pay Commission
• Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare
• Department of Expenditure
• Central government employees in India
• Rule 44 pension calculator

External references

• Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare
• Central Pension Accounting Office
• Pensioners’ Portal
• Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pensions)
• Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare
• Indian Railways

References

1. Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare, Office Memorandum F. No. 38/37/2016-P&PW(A) dated 6 July 2017, enclosing Concordance Tables No. 1 to 58 for revision of pension of pre-2016 pensioners and family pensioners under the 7th CPC, issued with the concurrence of the Department of Expenditure at Diary No. 1(13)/EV/2017 dated 5 July 2017.
2. Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare, Office Memorandum F. No. 38/37/2016-P&PW(A) dated 12 May 2017, revision by notional pay fixation in the 7th CPC pay matrix (paragraph 4), the higher of the two formulations (paragraph 5), the pre-1986 starting point (paragraph 7), the minimum pension and ceilings (paragraph 8), the exclusions (paragraphs 11, 12, 19 and 20), the additional pension by age (paragraph 15), arrears (paragraph 17), responsibility for the revised authority (paragraph 18), and the four illustrations at Annexure I.
3. Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare, Office Memorandum No. 38/37/2016-P&PW(A)(ii) dated 4 August 2016, revision by multiplying the pre-2016 pension by 2.57.
4. Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare, Corrigendum F. No. 38/37/2016-P&PW(A) dated 13 September 2017 (Tables No. 51 and 52 substituted).
5. Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare, Corrigendum F. No. 38/37/2016-P&PW(A) dated 18 June 2020 (Table No. 29 substituted).
6. Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare, Office Memorandum No. 45/86/97-P&PW(D)(iii) dated 10 February 1998 (notional pay as on 1 January 1986 for pre-1986 retirees).
7. Railway Board letter No. 2016/F(E)III/1(1)/7 dated 11 July 2017, RBE No. 66/2017 and PC-VII No. 22/2017, applying the concordance tables mutatis mutandis on the railways.
8. Ministry of Defence, Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare, letter No. 17(01)/2017(02)/D(Pension/Policy) dated 5 September 2017 (notional pay fixation for pre-2016 armed forces pensioners) and letter of even number dated 17 October 2018 (armed forces concordance tables).
9. CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016, Rule 7, gazette notification G.S.R. 721(E) dated 25 July 2016 (fitment of serving employees, cited for the contrast).
10. CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021, Rules 40 and 41, gazette notification G.S.R. 868(E) dated 20 December 2021 (compulsory retirement pension and compassionate allowance, the two excluded classes).