Defence pay matrix

The defence pay matrix is the table of pay levels and cells that fixes the basic pay of every member of the Indian armed forces, with effect from 1 January 2016. It runs from Rs. 21,700, cell 1 of Level 3 for a Sepoy, to Rs. 2,50,000 at Level 18 for a service chief, and it was notified by the Ministry of Defence through the Army Officers Pay Rules, 2017 and the Army Pay Rules, 2017 of 3 May 2017 and their Navy and Air Force equivalents. Military Service Pay is added on top of the cell, at Rs. 15,500 a month for officers and Rs. 5,200 for Junior Commissioned Officers and Other Ranks, up to the rank of Brigadier and equivalent.

It is a separate table from the civilian pay matrix, not a variant of it. The defence matrix carries level labels the civil matrix does not use, 5A, 10B, 12A and 13A, because the rank structure of the forces does not map onto the civilian grade hierarchy. It omits Levels 1, 2 and 12 entirely, which is why a Major at Rs. 69,400 is one promotion away from a Lieutenant Colonel at Rs. 1,21,200 with nothing printed in between.

The construction is shared with the civil matrix. Each cell 1 was generated by applying an index of rationalisation to the rank’s 6th CPC entry pay, and each individual was moved into the table on 1 January 2016 by multiplying existing basic pay by the fitment factor of 2.57. Those two multiples are different instruments doing different jobs, and confusing them is what produced the largest pay dispute of the 7th CPC cycle in the armed forces.

This article gives the rank-to-level mapping for all three services and for the Junior Commissioned Officers and Other Ranks, the entry pay and index of every level, what the Government changed after the Commission reported, how pay is fixed on entry and on promotion, how the monthly figure is assembled from the cell upward, the second matrix for Military Nursing Service officers, and what the 8th Central Pay Commission can and cannot be said to have decided.

Rank to level for commissioned officers

A Lieutenant is at Level 10, a Lieutenant Colonel at Level 12A, a Colonel at Level 13 and a Brigadier at Level 13A. Part B of the Schedule to the Army Officers Pay Rules, 2017 sets out the whole mapping, and the Navy Officers Pay Regulations, 2017 and the Air Force Officers Pay Rules, 2017 map the equivalent ranks of those services to the same levels.

The Navy is the one service whose Part B does not use a separate flag rank for Level 13A. Where the Army promotes a Colonel to Brigadier and the Air Force a Group Captain to Air Commodore, the Navy splits the single rank of Captain by seniority: a Captain of under three years’ seniority is at Level 13 and one of three years’ seniority and above at Level 13A. The level, not the rank title, is what determines the pay.

Level 17 is not always held by appointment. Rule 5 of the Army Officers Pay Rules, 2017 provides that a Lieutenant General fit for promotion as an Army Commander but passed over for want of residual service is granted pay in Level 17 on a non-functional basis, which carries every financial benefit of that level and none of the other privileges of the office.

Rank to level for Junior Commissioned Officers and Other Ranks

A Sepoy is at Level 3 with a cell 1 of Rs. 21,700, and a Subedar Major at Level 8 with a cell 1 of Rs. 47,600. Part B of the Schedule to the Army Pay Rules, 2017 maps six ranks, and adds the two honorary commissioned ranks that a Subedar or Subedar Major may be granted.

Paragraph 5.2.13 of the 7th CPC report fixes the commencement of the matrix for combatants at the level corresponding to grade pay Rs. 2,000, the induction level for a Sepoy, which is why the defence table has no Level 1 or Level 2. Paragraph 5.2.7 sets the Sepoy’s starting point at Rs. 21,700, being the pre-revised Rs. 8,460 multiplied by 2.57, against the civilian floor of Rs. 18,000 at Level 1.

Two columns in this part of the table carry no Army or Air Force rank in Part B. Level 5A, at grade pay Rs. 3,400 and a cell 1 of Rs. 33,300, is marked in Table 3 of the 7th CPC report as available to the defence forces only, and Level 9, at grade pay Rs. 5,400 in pay band 2 with a cell 1 of Rs. 53,100, is the same column that the civil matrix carries. Both are printed in Part A of the Schedule to the Army Pay Rules, 2017 without a rank assigned to them in Part B.

Entry pay and index of rationalisation by level

Every cell 1 in the defence matrix is the rank’s 6th CPC entry pay multiplied by an index of rationalisation and rounded to the nearest hundred rupees. The index is not the same at every level, because paragraph 5.2.8 of the 7th CPC report treats responsibility as rising step by step up the hierarchy, so the multiple rises with the pay band.

The arithmetic is checkable in every row. Rs. 45,400 multiplied by 2.67 is Rs. 1,21,218, printed as Rs. 1,21,200; Rs. 52,290 multiplied by 2.67 is Rs. 1,39,614, printed as Rs. 1,39,600; Rs. 53,000 multiplied by 2.72 is Rs. 1,44,160, printed as Rs. 1,44,200. The 6th CPC entry pay of a rank was itself built by paragraph 5.2.5 as the entry pay of the pay band plus the residency period for promotion into the rank multiplied by the annual increment plus the grade pay of the rank, which is how a Captain’s Rs. 22,960 comes out of Rs. 15,600 plus two increments of Rs. 630 plus grade pay of Rs. 6,100.

What the Government changed after the Commission reported

The three officer levels from Lieutenant Colonel to Brigadier were rebuilt twice after the 7th CPC submitted its report on 19 November 2015, and each change raised their cell 1. Paragraph 5.2.9 of the report had applied an index of 2.57 to Levels 12A, 13 and 13A, lower than the 2.67 applied to Levels 10, 10B and 11 below them, on the reasoning that Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels had already received a marked increase at the 6th CPC.

Ministry of Defence Resolution No. 01(E) dated 5 September 2016 made the first correction. It raised the index for Level 13A, the Brigadier level, from 2.57 to 2.67, which moved cell 1 from the recommended Rs. 1,34,400 to Rs. 1,39,600, and it added three pay stages each at Levels 12A and 13 and two at Level 13A, all with effect from 1 January 2016.

The second correction was the larger. Resolution No. 1-2/2016-IC dated 16 May 2017 raised the index for Level 12A and Level 13 from 2.57 to 2.67 and extended the defence matrix from 24 stages to 40, matching the span of the civil matrix. Cell 1 of Level 12A moved from Rs. 1,16,700 to Rs. 1,21,200, and cell 1 of Level 13 from Rs. 1,25,700 to Rs. 1,30,600. The Army Officers Pay (Amendment) Rules, 2017 notified as S.R.O. 17(E), the Air Force Officers Pay (Amendment) Rules, 2017 as S.R.O. 18(E) and the Navy Officers Pay (Amendment) Regulations, 2017 as S.R.O. 19(E), all dated 6 July 2017, gave that change effect in the rules.

Rebuilding a level shortened it. Level 12A went from 21 cells to 20 and Level 13 from 19 cells to 18, because the columns rise at a fixed 3% and start higher. Ministry of Defence letter No. 1(27)/2017-D(Pay/Services) dated 2 July 2018 ordered pay in the two levels to be re-fixed in the modified columns, and it settled the point that the revised index was used only to build cell 1: the multiple for fixing an individual officer’s pay remained 2.57, and where 2.67 had been applied to a person, recovery of the excess drawn up to 31 July 2017 was waived.

How pay was fixed on 1 January 2016

Pay was fixed by multiplying existing basic pay by 2.57 and locating the result in the level of the rank. Rule 7 of the Army Officers Pay Rules, 2017 states the operation exactly: the figure is rounded to the nearest rupee, an identical cell in the applicable level becomes the pay, and where no identical cell exists the pay is fixed at the immediate next higher cell in that level. Where the product falls below cell 1 of the level, the pay is cell 1.

The 2.57 is a civilian computation carried into the defence table. It is the new minimum pay of Rs. 18,000 divided by the pre-revised Rs. 7,000, and paragraph 5.2.7 records that it contains a factor of 2.25 for neutralising the dearness allowance of 125% expected on 1 January 2016 and a real increase of 14.29%. The same 2.57 was applied to the pre-revised rates of Military Service Pay, which is how the officer rate reached Rs. 15,500.

Officers with Non-Practising Allowance were fixed differently. Rule 7(2) provides that for medical officers of the Army Medical Corps, the Army Dental Corps and the Remount and Veterinary Corps, the product of basic pay and 2.57 is increased by an amount equal to the dearness allowance on the pre-revised Non-Practising Allowance before being located in the level.

An officer could decline the new structure for a time. Rule 5 allowed an election to continue in the existing pay structure until the next increment fell due or the officer ceased to hold the rank, and Rule 6 required that option to reach the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Officers) at Pune within 180 days of notification, failing which the officer was deemed to have elected the revised structure from 1 January 2016.

Increments and movement down a level

The annual increment is the next vertical cell in the same level, and the columns are built at 3%. Rule 9 of the Army Officers Pay Rules, 2017 says only that the increment is as specified in the vertical cells of the applicable level, because the rise is already printed in the matrix rather than computed afresh each year.

Rule 10 gives two increment dates, 1 January and 1 July, with one increment a year. An officer appointed, promoted or upgraded between 2 January and 1 July takes the increment on 1 January, and one appointed between 2 July and 1 January takes it on 1 July. This replaced the single 1 July date of the 6th CPC structure, and the date of next increment rules on the civil side move in the same way.

Officers reach the top of a level by time rather than by selection for much of a career. Paragraph 5.2.14 of the 7th CPC report records that service officers receive time-scale promotion up to the rank of Colonel and equivalent, so movement from one level to another happens on a stipulated time frame, while the terms of engagement of Junior Commissioned Officers and Other Ranks are fixed and shorter. That is the reason the report gives for the defence matrix being more compact than the civil one.

Pay fixation on promotion

One increment is given in the level being left, and the officer is placed at the cell equal to that figure in the new level, or the next higher cell where no equal cell exists. Rule 12 of the Army Officers Pay Rules, 2017 states the general method, which is the same operation as pay fixation on promotion on the civil side.

Promotion from Level 13A to Level 14 is the one case the rule handles separately, and Military Service Pay is the reason. MSP stops at Brigadier, so a Brigadier drawing Rs. 1,39,600 and Rs. 15,500 of MSP could be promoted into a Level 14 cell worth less than the two together. Rule 12(iii) prevents that by taking the sum of the Level 13A pay, the promotion increment and Military Service Pay and locating that total in Level 14, at the identical cell where there is one and the next higher cell where there is not.

A second ceiling applies to medical officers. Rule 12(ii), as substituted by the Army Officers Pay (Amendment) Rules, 2019 notified as S.R.O. 01(E) dated 25 February 2019 with effect from 1 January 2016, provides that basic pay plus Non-Practising Allowance plus Military Service Pay shall not exceed Rs. 2,37,500, the average of the basic pay of Levels 17 and 18.

The Military Nursing Service matrix

Military Nursing Service officers are paid on a second matrix with its own levels, not on the service officers’ table. Paragraph 5.2.18 of the 7th CPC report prints it with Levels 10, 10A, 10B, 11, 12, 12B and 13B, so that two of the labels, 10A and 12B and 13B, appear nowhere in the service officers’ matrix at all.

The entry cell is identical. An MNS officer at cell 1 of Level 10 draws Rs. 56,100, the same figure as a Lieutenant and the same as a civilian Group A entrant, and paragraph 5.2.11 states that identity as deliberate. Above the entry level the two matrices separate, because paragraph 5.2.20 derives the minimum pay of each MNS rank by multiplying the minimum pay of that rank in the defence matrix by the ratio of the MNS grade pay to the grade pay of the same rank in the services. A Colonel of the Military Nursing Service accordingly starts at Rs. 1,09,800, which is Rs. 1,25,700 scaled by 7,600 over 8,700.

Two ranks were moved off that formula. Paragraph 5.2.21 raised the MNS Captain’s minimum to Rs. 59,000 to avoid bunching with the MNS Lieutenant, and reduced the MNS Brigadier’s from the Rs. 1,26,800 the formula gave to Rs. 1,19,700, the midpoint of the Colonel and Major General minimums, to keep a differential between the two. Military Service Pay for MNS officers is Rs. 10,800 a month, against Rs. 15,500 for service officers.

Where the defence matrix differs from the civil matrix

The two matrices share their design and differ in six specific ways, all traceable to the rank structure and the shorter career of the forces.

The identity at Level 10 and from Level 14 upward is deliberate. Paragraph 5.2.11 of the 7th CPC report records that the starting pay level at Group A entry is identical at Rs. 56,100 for civil and defence officers, and that the pay of a Major General and a Joint Secretary, and of every rank above them up to the service chiefs and the Cabinet Secretary, was kept identical. Paragraph 5.2.16 adds the caveat that the pay structure is not intended to determine status against a civilian counterpart.

Building the monthly pay from the cell upward

Monthly pay is the matrix cell, plus Military Service Pay, plus dearness allowance on the two together, plus house rent allowance on the cell alone, plus the duty allowances of the posting. The order matters because Military Service Pay is inside one base and outside the other.

Take a Lieutenant at cell 1 of Level 10 on 1 January 2026. Basic pay is Rs. 56,100 and MSP is Rs. 15,500, giving Rs. 71,600 of reckonable pay. Dearness allowance at 60%, fixed by Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 1/1(i)/2026-E.II(B) dated 22 April 2026 with effect from 1 January 2026, is Rs. 42,960 on that figure. House rent allowance is computed on Rs. 56,100 alone, so at the 30% rate for an X-class city it is Rs. 16,830 and not Rs. 21,480.

The same build-up for a Sepoy at cell 1 of Level 3 gives Rs. 21,700 of basic pay, Rs. 5,200 of MSP, Rs. 16,140 of dearness allowance on the Rs. 26,900 reckonable pay, and house rent allowance on Rs. 21,700. Paragraph 5.2.22 of the 7th CPC report is the authority for MSP counting as basic pay for dearness allowance and for pension, and for its exclusion from house rent allowance, the annual increment and the composite transfer grant.

Duty allowances sit on top of all of it, and several have no civilian equivalent. The field area allowance family, the high altitude and Siachen allowances and the flying allowance drawn by aircrew are graded through the risk and hardship allowance matrix, except for Siachen, which the Government carved out above the matrix at Rs. 42,500 a month for personnel at Level 9 and above and Rs. 30,000 at Level 8 and below.

Group X pay and the technical trades

Junior Commissioned Officers and Other Ranks in technical trades draw Group X pay on top of the matrix cell and Military Service Pay. Paragraph 6.2.88 of the 7th CPC report recommends Rs. 6,200 a month for X trades that require a qualification equivalent to a diploma recognised by the All India Council for Technical Education, and Rs. 3,600 for personnel already in X pay who do not hold such a qualification.

The higher figure was not chosen freely. The report derives Rs. 6,200 as the difference between cell 1 of Level 6, at Rs. 35,400, and cell 1 of Level 5, at Rs. 29,200, so Group X pay is worth exactly one level of the matrix at the point where a technical trade separates from a general one. The lower Rs. 3,600 is the pre-revised X pay of Rs. 1,400 multiplied by the standard 2.57.

Career progression within the matrix

Movement between levels comes from promotion, from time-scale promotion up to Colonel, and from the Modified Assured Career Progression scheme at 8, 16 and 24 years. Paragraph 5.2.10 of the 7th CPC report declined to increase the number of MACP upgradations for the forces, kept the three at their existing service points, and placed the upgradation in the immediate next level of the matrix, with pay fixed on the same principle as a regular promotion.

That is the same three-stage scheme the civil side runs, applied to a hierarchy with fewer rungs. Because the defence matrix omits the civil Level 12, an upgradation from Level 11 lands at Level 12A, which is the single largest step in the table.

Entry cases: cadets, medical officers and honorary commissions

A cadet under training is paid the starting cell of Level 10 as a fixed stipend. Rule 8 of the Army Officers Pay Rules, 2017 fixes the stipend at Rs. 56,100 a month for gentlemen and lady cadets at the Indian Military Academy, the Officers Training Academies at Chennai and Gaya and the Cadets Training Wings at the College of Military Engineering, and provides that on commissioning the officer’s pay is fixed at cell 1 of Level 10, with the training period not counting as commissioned service.

Medical officers enter above cell 1. Rule 8(4) fixes an officer commissioned into the Army Medical Corps, the Army Dental Corps or the Remount and Veterinary Corps as a Lieutenant at cell 2 of Level 10, Rs. 57,800, and one commissioned as a Captain at cell 1 of Level 10B, Rs. 61,300.

A trainee drawn from the ranks keeps the pay of the rank held. Rule 8(3) provides that a Junior Commissioned Officer or Other Rank undergoing pre-commission training continues on the pay and allowances of the existing rank during training, with the difference against the cadet stipend paid as a lump sum on commissioning.

Who is on the defence pay matrix and who is not

The defence pay matrix applies to the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, and to nobody else. The Central Armed Police Forces are paid on the civil pay matrix and do not draw Military Service Pay, a distinction the 7th CPC report addresses directly in recording that a defence person joining a CAPF is not entitled to Military Service Pay while the pay already drawn is protected.

Civilian employees of the Ministry of Defence are on the civil matrix as well. A Defence Accounts Department clerk, a Military Engineer Services draughtsman and a Defence Research and Development Organisation scientist are all paid under the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016, notwithstanding that they work for the same ministry as the personnel on the defence table.

Who notifies the rules and who pays

The Ministry of Defence notifies the pay rules for all three services, and the rules for each are separate instruments issued on the same day. The Army Officers Pay Rules, 2017 and the Army Pay Rules, 2017, both notified on 3 May 2017 with effect from 1 January 2016, supersede the Special Army Instructions of 2008 that carried the 6th CPC structure, and Rule 15 gives the new rules overriding effect over the Pay and Allowances Regulations (Officers), Army 1954 to the extent of any inconsistency. Service-personnel pay policy now sits with the Department of Military Affairs within the ministry.

Payment runs through a separate accounting organisation. The Defence Accounts Department under the Controller General of Defence Accounts disburses defence pay, with the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Officers) at Pune handling officers and the pay accounts offices handling Junior Commissioned Officers and Other Ranks. That office is named in the rules themselves as the recipient of an option under Rule 6 and as the authority to pay arrears in the cases Rule 6 covers.

Effect on pension

The matrix cell and Military Service Pay together form the emoluments a defence pension is calculated on, because paragraph 5.2.22 of the 7th CPC report counts MSP as basic pay for the computation of pension. A pension at 50% of emoluments is accordingly higher for a defence person than the matrix cell alone would give, which is the structural reason defence and civil pensions of nominally comparable pay differ.

The matrix is also the instrument through which a pre-2016 defence pensioner is revised. One Rank One Pension, under which personnel of the same rank and the same length of service draw the same pension whatever their date of retirement, works on the rank and the qualifying service rather than on the pay drawn, and it operates alongside rather than inside the matrix.

Bearing on the 8th Central Pay Commission

The defence pay matrix will be revised when the 8th Central Pay Commission reports, and no revised figure exists yet. Clause 2(a)(iii) of the terms of reference in Department of Expenditure Resolution F. No. 01-01/2025-E.III(A) dated 3 November 2025 brings personnel of the defence forces within the remit of the Commission chaired by Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, and the report is due within 18 months, by 3 May 2027. No separate pay commission for the armed forces has been constituted.

As on 18 August 2026 the matrix in force is the 7th CPC’s, built on the indices set out above, entered on the fitment factor of 2.57, and topped by Military Service Pay unchanged since 1 January 2016 at Rs. 15,500 and Rs. 5,200. Service and veteran bodies have pressed for a higher Military Service Pay and for changes to the rank-to-level structure, and those are demands on the Commission, not decisions by it. Any revised defence matrix, fitment factor or MSP figure attributed to the 8th CPC is a projection until the Commission reports and the Government acts on it, and the running record of what has actually happened is kept on the 8th Pay Commission status tracker.

Related Articles

• Pay matrix
• Military Service Pay
• Fitment factor
• Minimum pay
• Pay fixation
• Pay fixation on promotion
• Pay fixation on re-employment
• Annual increment
• Date of next increment
• Modified Assured Career Progression
• Grade pay
• Pay band
• Dearness allowance
• House rent allowance
• Composite transfer grant
• Field area allowance
• High Altitude and Siachen Allowance
• Risk and hardship allowance
• Military Nursing Service
• Group X pay
• Central Armed Police Forces
• One Rank One Pension
• Central government pension
• Cabinet Secretary pay
• 7th Central Pay Commission
• 6th Central Pay Commission
• 8th Central Pay Commission
• 8th Pay Commission status tracker
• Central Pay Commission
• Department of Expenditure
• Central government employees in India
• 7th CPC salary calculator

External references

• Ministry of Defence
• 7th Central Pay Commission report (doe.gov.in)
• Controller General of Defence Accounts
• Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Officers), Pune
• Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance
• 8th Central Pay Commission

References

1. Report of the Seventh Central Pay Commission (submitted 19 November 2015), Chapter 5.2: the defence pay matrix and the MNS matrix, paragraphs 5.2.5 to 5.2.22, covering entry pay, the fitment of 2.57, the index of rationalisation, the commencement of the matrix at the Sepoy level, the MNS formulation, and Military Service Pay.
2. Army Officers Pay Rules, 2017, notified 3 May 2017 with effect from 1 January 2016: Rule 5 (option and non-functional Level 17), Rule 6 (option to the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Officers)), Rule 7 (fixation on the multiple of 2.57), Rule 8 (cadet stipend and medical officer entry), Rules 9 and 10 (increments), Rule 12 (promotion, including Level 13A to Level 14), and Part B of the Schedule (rank to level).
3. Army Pay Rules, 2017, notified 3 May 2017: Part A of the Schedule (Levels 3 to 10B) and Part B (Sepoy to Subedar Major, and the honorary commissioned ranks).
4. Navy Officers Pay Regulations, 2017 and Air Force Officers Pay Rules, 2017, Part B of the Schedule: the rank-to-level mapping for the Navy and the Air Force.
5. Ministry of Defence Resolution No. 01(E) dated 5 September 2016: acceptance of the 7th CPC recommendations for the armed forces, the index of rationalisation for Level 13A raised from 2.57 to 2.67, and the additional stages at Levels 12A, 13 and 13A.
6. Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure, Resolution No. 1-2/2016-IC dated 16 May 2017: the index for Levels 12A and 13 of the defence matrix raised from 2.57 to 2.67, and the defence matrix extended from 24 stages to 40.
7. Army Officers Pay (Amendment) Rules, 2017 (S.R.O. 17(E)), Air Force Officers Pay (Amendment) Rules, 2017 (S.R.O. 18(E)) and Navy Officers Pay (Amendment) Regulations, 2017 (S.R.O. 19(E)), all dated 6 July 2017: the modified Levels 12A and 13.
8. Ministry of Defence letter No. 1(27)/2017-D(Pay/Services) dated 2 July 2018: re-fixation in the modified Levels 12A and 13, the cell counts of 20 and 18, and the clarification that individual pay fixation stays on 2.57.
9. Central Civil Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016 (G.S.R. 721(E), 25 July 2016): the civil pay matrix against which the defence matrix is compared.
10. Department of Expenditure Resolution F. No. 01-01/2025-E.III(A) dated 3 November 2025: constitution and terms of reference of the 8th Central Pay Commission, clause 2(a)(iii) covering the defence forces.