Deputation (Duty) Allowance

The Deputation (Duty) Allowance is 5% of basic pay where a central government employee is deputed to an ex-cadre post within the same station, subject to a maximum of Rs. 5,625 a month, and 10% of basic pay where the deputation involves a change of station, subject to a maximum of Rs. 11,250 a month, both with effect from 1 January 2024. The rates and the ceilings are paragraph 6.1 of the Department of Personnel and Training consolidated guidelines in Office Memorandum No. DOPT-1711629234974 dated 28 March 2024, which folds seventeen earlier orders into one text and sources the allowance to DoPT OM No. 2/11/2017-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 24 November 2017.

The allowance is not an automatic addition to pay. It is one arm of the option in paragraph 4.1 of the same guidelines, under which an employee proceeding on deputation elects either the pay in the level of the ex-cadre post, or the basic pay of the parent cadre plus the Deputation (Duty) Allowance on it. Everything below applies to the employee who has taken the second branch.

Three limits shape what is actually drawn. Basic pay for the purpose is the pay of the post held substantively in the parent cadre and excludes personal pay. Basic pay plus the allowance may not exceed Rs. 2,25,000 a month, the apex-level pay, under paragraph 6.1(d). And paragraph 8.3.2 stops the allowance at the fifth year even where the tenure is extended to the seventh, which costs an officer at the higher ceiling Rs. 1,35,000 a year for the extension.

This article sets out the two rates and the escalation that moved the ceilings, the definition of basic pay and the headquarters test that separates the same station from a change of station, the option against the pay of the post, the three-way treatment of an upgraded parent-cadre pay and the separate three-way treatment of a proforma promotion under the Next Below Rule, the apex-pay caps, the fifth-year cut-off, the rules for movement between ex-cadre posts, the special rates for arduous areas, the appointments that carry no allowance at all, the interaction with project allowance, special allowance, personal pay and Military Service Pay, who bears the cost, worked examples, and the tax position under the Income-tax Act, 2025.

The rates and the ceilings

The Deputation (Duty) Allowance is payable at 5% of basic pay within the same station, subject to a maximum of Rs. 5,625 a month, and at 10% of basic pay on a change of station, subject to a maximum of Rs. 11,250 a month, with effect from 1 January 2024. Paragraph 6.1(a) and paragraph 6.1(b) of the DoPT consolidated guidelines OM No. DOPT-1711629234974 dated 28 March 2024 state the percentages and the underlying ceilings of Rs. 4,500 and Rs. 9,000; paragraph 6.1(c) is what has since carried those two figures to Rs. 5,625 and Rs. 11,250.

The doubling of the rate on a change of station is the whole of the structural difference between the two limbs. There is no third rate and no intermediate slab. An officer either stays at the same headquarters, in which case 5% applies, or moves, in which case 10% applies.

Both limbs are capped in rupees as well as in percentage, and the two constraints bind at different points in the pay range. At either rate the ceiling starts to bite at a basic pay of Rs. 1,12,500 a month, because 5% of that figure is exactly Rs. 5,625 and 10% of it is exactly Rs. 11,250. Below that pay the full percentage is drawn; above it the allowance is frozen in rupees and its value as a proportion of pay falls away.

How the ceilings rise with dearness allowance

The ceilings step up by 25% each time dearness allowance increases by 50%, under paragraph 6.1(c) of the DoPT consolidated guidelines of 28 March 2024, which reproduces the escalation clause the Seventh Central Pay Commission wrote into paragraph 8.5.7 of its report. One step has been taken. Dearness allowance reached 50% of basic pay with effect from 1 January 2024, so the ceilings of Rs. 4,500 and Rs. 9,000 fixed for 1 July 2017 became Rs. 5,625 and Rs. 11,250 from that date.

No separate order was needed for that step, and none was issued. Department of Expenditure I.D. Note No. 2/5/2017-E.II(B) dated 20 March 2024 records that the allowances which rise with a 50% dearness allowance do so without a fresh order, and the 25% enhancement is self-executing on the date dearness allowance crosses the threshold.

The next step comes at 100%, not at 75%. The clause reads in units of 50 percentage points of dearness allowance, so the second 25% enhancement, which would take the ceilings to Rs. 7,031.25 and Rs. 14,062.50, waits until dearness allowance reaches 100% of basic pay. The percentages themselves, 5% and 10%, are outside the escalation and do not move with dearness allowance at all. The same stepped mechanism governs the conveyance allowance and the constant attendant allowance.

What counts as basic pay

Basic pay for the Deputation (Duty) Allowance is the pay drawn from time to time in the level of the pay matrix of the post held substantively in the parent cadre, and it does not include any other type of pay such as personal pay. That definition is the Note printed below paragraph 6.1.6 of the DoPT consolidated guidelines of 28 March 2024, and it is narrower than the phrase “basic pay” is elsewhere on a pay slip.

Two exclusions follow directly from it. Dearness allowance, house rent allowance, transport allowance and every other allowance are outside the base, so an officer in Level 11 at Rs. 71,800 with dearness allowance on top computes the deputation allowance on Rs. 71,800 alone. Personal pay is outside the base by name: paragraph 7.4 lets an employee carry personal pay onto deputation under the parent-cadre option, and then states in terms that no Deputation (Duty) Allowance is admissible on that personal pay.

The word “substantively” is the part that decides disputed cases. Where an officer holds one post substantively in the parent cadre and is officiating in a higher one at the time of proceeding on deputation, the base is the substantive post. The pay matrix cell of that substantive post, moved forward by the annual increments the officer continues to earn in the parent cadre under paragraph 7.5, is the figure the 5% or the 10% is applied to each year.

Same station and change of station

The test is a change in headquarters, not a change of residence and not the length of the commute. Note 1 below paragraph 6.1.6 of the DoPT consolidated guidelines of 28 March 2024 determines the same station by reference to the station where the person was on duty immediately before proceeding on deputation. Note 2 then makes the rule operational: where there is no change in headquarters against the last post held, the transfer is treated as within the same station and the 5% rate applies, and where there is a change in headquarters, it is not the same station and the 10% rate applies.

Note 2 adds one extension that decides a large share of urban cases. Places falling within the same urban agglomeration as the old headquarters are treated as transfer within the same station. An officer moving from a headquarters in Delhi to an ex-cadre post in Noida, Gurugram or Faridabad is therefore on the same station and draws 5%, capped at Rs. 5,625, not 10%.

Because the rate doubles and the ceiling doubles with it, the classification is worth up to Rs. 5,625 a month, or Rs. 67,500 a year, and it should be settled in the terms of deputation rather than left to the drawing and disbursing officer. The question is decided on the headquarters recorded for the two posts, so an office some distance away across the same city does not convert a same-station deputation into a change of station.

The option: the allowance or the pay of the post

An employee proceeding on deputation or foreign service elects one of two ways to be paid, and the Deputation (Duty) Allowance exists only inside the second. Paragraph 4.1 of the DoPT consolidated guidelines of 28 March 2024 gives the choice between the pay in the level of the pay matrix attached to the deputation post, and the basic pay in the parent cadre plus the Deputation (Duty) Allowance on it plus personal pay if any.

Which arm wins turns on the level of the ex-cadre post against the parent-cadre post. Where the deputation post sits at a higher level, the pay of the post generally exceeds parent-cadre pay plus 10% of it, and the officer takes the pay of the post. Where the deputation post sits at the same level as the parent post, the allowance is a pure addition to a basic pay that would not have changed either way, and the second arm wins by the whole of the allowance.

The consequences of the election run past the monthly figure. Under paragraph 7.5, an officer who has opted for parent-cadre pay draws increments in the parent cadre in the ordinary way, while an officer who has opted for the pay of the deputation post continues to accrue notional increments in the parent-cadre post for the purpose of regulating pay on repatriation. Under paragraph 7.3, a special allowance attached to the scale of the ex-cadre post goes only to the officer who has taken the pay of that post. Both figures should be computed before the option is furnished, because it governs for the whole tenure and the pay fixation on return is worked from it.

Upgraded parent-cadre pay under NFU, MACP or NFSG

An upgradation of parent-cadre pay does not automatically raise the Deputation (Duty) Allowance, and above Level 13A it converts into a fresh option. Paragraphs 6.1.2 and 6.1.3 of the DoPT consolidated guidelines of 28 March 2024 govern the case, and both come from DoPT OM No. 2/11/2017-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 15 March 2021.

Paragraph 6.1.2 covers an upgradation up to Level 13A on account of non-functional upgradation, the Modified Assured Career Progression Scheme, the non-functional selection grade or a similar scheme, where the officer has opted for the upgraded parent-cadre pay. The upgraded basic pay is not taken into account for the Deputation (Duty) Allowance. The allowance is computed on the basic pay the officer was drawing before the upgradation, and that presumptive figure is carried forward each year by giving annual increments on it. The officer keeps the higher pay and draws 5% or 10% of a lower notional one.

Paragraph 6.1.3 breaks that pattern at Level 14. Where the upgradation is to Level 14 of the pay matrix or above, the officer is given an option: draw the upgraded basic pay without any Deputation (Duty) Allowance, or draw the pay held before the upgradation together with the allowance, whichever is more beneficial. The arithmetic is worth doing rather than assuming, because at Level 14 and above the pay ceiling of Rs. 2,25,000 in paragraph 6.1(d) may already be compressing the allowance.

Proforma promotion under the Next Below Rule

A proforma promotion in the parent cadre splits three ways for the Deputation (Duty) Allowance, not two, and the split is at paragraphs 6.1.4 to 6.1.6 of the DoPT consolidated guidelines of 28 March 2024. A proforma promotion under the Next Below Rule protects an officer on deputation from being overtaken by juniors promoted in the parent cadre while the officer is away, and each of the three branches below assumes such a promotion has been granted.

Where the proforma promotion is up to Level 13A and is to a level of the pay matrix higher than that of the ex-cadre post, and the officer has opted for the upgraded pay of the promotion, paragraph 6.1.4 leaves that pay out of the reckoning. The allowance is computed on the basic pay the officer was drawing before the proforma promotion, and that pre-upgraded presumptive pay is regulated each year by annual increments on it. The premise is that an officer whose notional parent-cadre pay has overtaken the ex-cadre post is no longer being elevated by the deputation.

Where the proforma promotion is to a level equal to or below that of the ex-cadre post, paragraph 6.1.5 makes the Deputation (Duty) Allowance admissible on the basic pay of the parent-cadre post allowed under the proforma promotion, if the deputationist opts for it. The deputation still represents at least a lateral move, so the allowance follows the higher pay.

Where the promotion is to Level 14 or above, paragraph 6.1.6 gives the same option that paragraph 6.1.3 gives on an upgradation: the promoted pay without the allowance, or the pay held before the proforma promotion with the allowance, whichever is more beneficial to the officer. If that branch is chosen, the allowance is computed on the pre-upgraded presumptive pay carried forward by annual increments.

The overall cap at apex pay

Basic pay from time to time plus the Deputation (Duty) Allowance must not exceed Rs. 2,25,000 a month, the basic pay at the apex level, under paragraph 6.1(d) of the DoPT consolidated guidelines of 28 March 2024. Where the sum would exceed that figure the allowance is trimmed to the difference, so an officer already drawing Rs. 2,20,000 of basic pay draws Rs. 5,000 of allowance and not the Rs. 11,250 the change-of-station ceiling would otherwise permit.

The same paragraph sets a separate and higher cap for a government servant who also receives non-practising allowance, such as a medical officer on deputation. Basic pay plus non-practising allowance plus the Deputation (Duty) Allowance must not exceed Rs. 2,37,500, which the paragraph defines as the average of the basic pay of the apex level and that of the Cabinet Secretary.

Both caps operate only at the top of the structure. Level 17, the apex level, is a single cell at Rs. 2,25,000, and an officer there draws no Deputation (Duty) Allowance at all because basic pay has already exhausted the cap. For the great majority of deputationists, whose basic pay is well below Rs. 1,12,500, neither the apex cap nor even the slab ceiling is the operative limit; the plain 5% or 10% is.

The fifth-year cut-off

The Deputation (Duty) Allowance is admissible only up to the fifth year of the deputation, under paragraph 8.3.2 of the DoPT consolidated guidelines of 28 March 2024, sourced there to DoPT OM No. 2/6/2016-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 23 February 2017. The tenure itself can run longer: paragraph 8.1 sets the period at whatever the recruitment rules of the ex-cadre post prescribe, or five years where they prescribe nothing, and paragraph 8.3.1(iii) bars any further extension only beyond the seventh year.

The gap between the two limits is the provision that costs money and is routinely missed. An officer whose deputation is extended into the sixth and seventh years keeps the ex-cadre post, keeps the parent-cadre pay under the option already exercised, and stops drawing the allowance entirely. At the change-of-station ceiling of Rs. 11,250 a month that is Rs. 1,35,000 of gross pay a year, and across both extension years Rs. 2,70,000.

An extension into the sixth year is therefore not a continuation on the same terms, and it should be weighed against repatriation to the parent cadre rather than treated as the default. Paragraph 8.3.1(ii) requires the borrowing organisation to seek the concurrence of the lending organisation and the officer six months before the tenure expires, which is the point at which the loss of the allowance is known and can be raised.

Movement between ex-cadre posts, and transfer by the borrowing authority

Two provisions decide what happens to the rate when the deputationist moves without returning to the parent cadre, and they move in opposite directions. Both sit at paragraph 6.3 of the DoPT consolidated guidelines of 28 March 2024.

Paragraph 6.3.1 holds the rate steady on a move the officer makes. Where an employee, with the permission of the competent authority, proceeds on deputation or foreign service from one ex-cadre post to another ex-cadre post in the same or another organisation without reverting to the parent cadre, and the second ex-cadre post is at the same station as the first, the rate of Deputation (Duty) Allowance remains unchanged. An officer already on the 10% rate stays on 10%.

Paragraph 6.3.2 raises the rate on a move the borrowing organisation makes. Where a person on deputation or foreign service is transferred by the borrowing authority from one station to another without any change in the post held, the rate is refixed as per paragraph 6.1(b), the change-of-station limb, at 10% of basic pay subject to Rs. 11,250 a month. An officer who took up an ex-cadre post in the same city on 5% and is then posted by the borrowing organisation to another city moves onto the higher rate for the rest of the tenure.

Special rates in arduous areas

A special rate of Deputation (Duty) Allowance may be notified for a particular area on account of the conditions of living there being particularly arduous or unattractive, and where that special rate is more favourable than the 5% and 10% rates in paragraph 6.1, the employee deputed to the area is given the benefit of it. That is paragraph 6.2 of the DoPT consolidated guidelines of 28 March 2024 in full.

The provision is enabling rather than self-executing. It preserves special rates admissible “under separate orders”, so the benefit arises only where such an order has actually been issued for the area in question. Where none has, the ordinary rates of paragraph 6.1 apply however difficult the posting, and the compensation for the conditions comes instead through the separate hard-area and remote-locality allowances, which are not part of the deputation framework.

Appointments that carry no allowance

Three provisions of the DoPT consolidated guidelines of 28 March 2024 shut the Deputation (Duty) Allowance out entirely, and they operate before any question of rate arises.

Paragraph 2.2(e) puts outside the guidelines those appointments in the nature of deemed deputation, or transfers to ex-cadre posts made in the exigencies of service, that carry the specific condition that no Deputation (Duty) Allowance will be admissible. It gives two examples: an interim arrangement when a government office or organisation, or part of one, is converted into a public sector undertaking or an autonomous body or the reverse, and an appointment to the same post in another cadre.

Paragraph 3.2(d) does the same for arrangements necessitated by staff imbalances arising on the reorganisation of offices, whether on the same station or a different one, again subject to the specific condition that no Deputation (Duty) Allowance is admissible. The rest of paragraph 3.2 removes four categories from the definition of deputation altogether, so no allowance can arise on them: appointment of serving employees by promotion or by direct recruitment from the open market, permanent appointment by transfer or absorption, and a temporary appointment made on the employee’s own personal request.

A fourth restriction bears on eligibility rather than on the allowance. Paragraph 3.3 provides that a person in a higher level of the pay matrix shall not be appointed on deputation to a post in a lower level where the deputation is from the Central Government to the Central Government, and also where the pay scale and dearness allowance of the parent-cadre post and the ex-cadre post are similar.

Interaction with other allowances and with personal pay

Four provisions in paragraph 7 of the DoPT consolidated guidelines of 28 March 2024 set what may and may not be drawn alongside the Deputation (Duty) Allowance, and they do not all point the same way.

A project allowance admissible in a project area in the borrowing organisation may be drawn in addition to the Deputation (Duty) Allowance under paragraph 7.1. A special allowance granted in the parent department under Fundamental Rule 9(25), or a corresponding rule of the parent organisation, may not be drawn in addition under paragraph 7.2; the borrowing department may allow it in special circumstances by suitably restricting the Deputation (Duty) Allowance, and that requires the specific and prior approval of the Department of Personnel and Training.

Paragraph 7.3 ties a special allowance attached to the scale of the ex-cadre post to the pay option. An employee who has opted to draw pay in that scale draws the special allowance in addition to it; an employee drawing parent-cadre pay plus the Deputation (Duty) Allowance does not draw it at all.

Personal pay and Military Service Pay each survive the deputation without enlarging the allowance. Under paragraph 7.4 personal pay drawn in the parent department continues on deputation where the employee has opted for parent-cadre pay, but no Deputation (Duty) Allowance is admissible on it. Under paragraph 7.6(d), where an army officer entitled to Military Service Pay in the parent cadre opts for parent-cadre pay on deputation to a civil post, Military Service Pay is admissible as a separate element and the Deputation (Duty) Allowance is reckoned only on basic pay and not on Military Service Pay, on the strength of a Department of Expenditure clarification dated 16 February 2017.

Who bears the cost, and the pension contribution

Who pays for the Deputation (Duty) Allowance depends on whether the borrowing organisation is inside government or outside it, and paragraph 7.7 of the DoPT consolidated guidelines of 28 March 2024 sets both cases out.

Between Ministries and Departments of the Central Government, and between the Central Government and a State Government, the allocation of leave-salary and pension contributions has been dispensed with under paragraph 7.7(i). Liability for leave salary rests with the department that sanctions the leave, liability for pension or the employee’s provident fund contribution rests with the parent department to which the officer permanently belongs at the time of retirement, and no proportionate contribution is recovered from the borrowing department.

Where a central government employee goes on foreign service terms to a central or state public sector undertaking or an autonomous body, paragraph 7.7(ii) requires leave-salary contribution, except for a period of leave availed on foreign service, and pension or employer’s provident fund contribution to be paid to the Central Government either by the employee or by the borrowing organisation. The terms of deputation must state clearly which of the two bears it, and the contribution is what keeps the foreign service period counting as qualifying service. Where the employee is covered by the National Pension System, paragraph 7.7(iv) requires the borrowing department to make the contribution to the employee’s account.

The position before 1 July 2017

The 5% and 10% rates are older than the Seventh Central Pay Commission and were not changed by it; what changed on 1 July 2017 were the rupee ceilings. Before that date the ceilings were Rs. 2,000 a month within the same station and Rs. 4,000 on a change of station, fixed under the DoPT consolidated guidelines in OM No. 6/8/2009-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 17 June 2010, the order the 2024 consolidation replaced.

Paragraph 8.5.7 of the report of the Seventh Central Pay Commission recorded that those ceilings were not indexed to dearness allowance, and recommended raising them by a factor of 2.25, to Rs. 4,500 within the same station and Rs. 9,000 on a change of station, with the further provision that they would rise 25% each time dearness allowance increased by 50%. The Government accepted the enhancement, and the revised rates took effect from 1 July 2017 under paragraph 14(i) of the 2024 consolidation, which is the date of effect for the deputation allowance while the rest of the guidelines run from 1 January 2016.

The escalation clause is the substantive change, not the 2.25 factor. The 6th Central Pay Commission ceilings had stood unindexed from 2010 to 2017 while pay and prices moved, which is the stagnation paragraph 8.5.7 identified; the 25% step at each 50 percentage points of dearness allowance is what stops it recurring. The percentages have now survived two pay commissions unchanged, so the live question at each revision is the ceiling.

Worked examples

The examples assume the officer has elected parent-cadre pay plus the allowance, that the deputation is in its first five years, and that the figure shown is the basic pay of the substantive parent-cadre post.

Only the last three rows meet a limit. The fifth row is capped by the slab ceiling of Rs. 11,250 in paragraph 6.1(b), and the sixth by the apex cap in paragraph 6.1(d), which trims the allowance to the difference between basic pay and Rs. 2,25,000 rather than to the slab figure. At the pre-2024 ceilings of Rs. 4,500 and Rs. 9,000 the slab cap bit from Rs. 90,000 of basic pay, so the 25% escalation returned the band between Rs. 90,000 and Rs. 1,12,500 to the full percentage.

The same figures show why the option in paragraph 4.1 matters. An officer in Level 12 at Rs. 78,800 deputed to a Level 12 ex-cadre post in another city draws Rs. 7,880 a month more by keeping parent-cadre pay, Rs. 94,560 over a year before dearness allowance. Deputed instead to a Level 13 post, whose first cell is Rs. 1,23,100, the officer is Rs. 36,420 a month better off taking the pay of the post and no allowance.

Tax treatment

The Deputation (Duty) Allowance is fully taxable. It is chargeable under the head Salaries under Section 15 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (Act No. 30 of 2025), which has governed since 1 April 2026, and no exemption reaches it.

The prescribed-allowance exemptions that survive the default regime sit in the Table in Schedule III to that Act, read with rule 280 of 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. Rule 280 keeps only allowances granted to meet expenditure actually incurred: on conveyance in the performance of duties, on travel on tour or on transfer, and on the ordinary daily charges of absence from the normal place of duty. The Deputation (Duty) Allowance meets no expenditure at all. It compensates for the fact of serving outside the parent cadre, so no limb of rule 280 touches it, and the whole of it enters gross salary. For the financial year 2025-26 return the position is the same under the repealed Income-tax Act, 1961, where the allowance fell outside Section 10(14) and Rule 2BB for the same reason.

Tax is deducted at source on the allowance along with the rest of salary by whichever organisation disburses it, and it forms part of the take-home salary for the months it is drawn, as the income tax for government employees article sets out. It does not enter emoluments for pension: Rule 31 of the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 2021 reckons basic pay, with non-practising allowance where admissible, and nothing else.

Bearing on the 8th Central Pay Commission

No figure for the Deputation (Duty) Allowance after the 8th Central Pay Commission can be stated, because that Commission has not reported and no recommendation on the allowance exists to accept or reject. What can be stated is the position it will start from and the mechanism that will carry it there.

The percentages of 5% and 10% survived both the 6th and the 7th Central Pay Commissions unchanged, and the 7th Central Pay Commission confined itself at paragraph 8.5.7 to the ceilings and to indexing them. On that record the percentages are the stable element and the ceilings the moving one. The ceilings will in any event rise a further 25%, to Rs. 7,031.25 and Rs. 14,062.50, when dearness allowance reaches 100% of basic pay, under paragraph 6.1(c) of the consolidated guidelines of 28 March 2024, and that step is independent of the Commission.

A pay commission also resets the base on which the percentage is applied. Because the allowance is a percentage of basic pay, any fitment factor applied to the pay matrix raises the allowance in rupees at once, without a separate order, until it meets the ceiling. Until the 8th Central Pay Commission reports and its recommendations are accepted, the position is 5% within the same station and 10% on a change of station, on ceilings of Rs. 5,625 and Rs. 11,250, subject to the apex-pay cap and the fifth-year cut-off.

Related Articles

• Deputation for central government employees
• Foreign service
• Next Below Rule
• Proforma promotion
• Non-functional upgradation
• Modified Assured Career Progression
• Non-functional selection grade
• Central Staffing Scheme
• Basic pay
• Pay matrix
• Pay fixation
• Seniority
• Dearness allowance
• House rent allowance
• Non-practising allowance
• Military Service Pay
• Conveyance allowance
• Constant Attendant Allowance
• Cabinet Secretary
• Allowances for central government employees
• Fundamental Rules
• Department of Personnel and Training
• 7th Central Pay Commission
• 8th Central Pay Commission
• National Pension System
• Income-tax Act 2025
• Income tax for government employees
• Take-home salary for central government employees
• Central government employees in India

External references

• Department of Personnel and Training
• Department of Expenditure
• Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions
• Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare
• Income Tax Department
• Central Board of Direct Taxes

References

1. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. DOPT-1711629234974 dated 28 March 2024, “Consolidated guidelines on deputation/foreign service for central government employees”: paragraph 2.2(e) and paragraph 3.2 (appointments carrying no Deputation (Duty) Allowance), paragraph 3.3 (level restriction), paragraph 4.1 (the pay option), paragraph 6.1(a) to 6.1(d) (rates, escalation and the apex caps), paragraphs 6.1.2 and 6.1.3 (upgraded parent-cadre pay), paragraphs 6.1.4 to 6.1.6 (proforma promotion under the Next Below Rule), the Notes below paragraph 6.1.6 (basic pay, and the same-station test), paragraph 6.2 (special rates in arduous areas), paragraphs 6.3.1 and 6.3.2 (movement between ex-cadre posts and transfer by the borrowing authority), paragraphs 7.1 to 7.5 and 7.6(d) (other allowances, personal pay, increments and Military Service Pay), paragraph 7.7 (leave-salary and pension contribution), paragraphs 8.1 to 8.3.2 (tenure and the fifth-year cut-off), and paragraph 14 (dates of effect).
2. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. 2/11/2017-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 24 November 2017, “Grant of Deputation (Duty) Allowance, recommendations of the Seventh Central Pay Commission” (the 5% and 10% rates, the ceilings of Rs. 4,500 and Rs. 9,000 from 1 July 2017, the 25% escalation at each 50% of dearness allowance, and the caps of Rs. 2,25,000 and Rs. 2,37,500).
3. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. 2/11/2017-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 15 March 2021, “Grant of Deputation (Duty) Allowance in cases where the basic pay in parent cadre has been upgraded on account of NFU, MACP, NFSG etc. in the 7th CPC context” (paragraphs 6.1.2 and 6.1.3 of the 2024 consolidation).
4. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. 2/6/2016-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 23 February 2017, “Admissibility of Deputation (Duty) Allowance while on deputation” (the allowance admissible only up to the fifth year, paragraph 8.3.2 of the 2024 consolidation).
5. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. 6/8/2009-Estt.(Pay-II) dated 17 June 2010, the earlier consolidated guidelines on deputation and foreign service (the ceilings of Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 4,000 before 1 July 2017, and paragraphs 7.1 to 7.6 carried into the 2024 consolidation).
6. Report of the Seventh Central Pay Commission, paragraph 8.5.7 (the ceilings not indexed to dearness allowance, the recommendation to raise them by a factor of 2.25, and the 25% rise at each 50% increase in dearness allowance).
7. Department of Expenditure, I.D. Note No. 2/5/2017-E.II(B) dated 20 March 2024 (no separate order required for the increase in allowances consequent on dearness allowance reaching 50%), and Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 1/1/2024-E.II(B) dated 12 March 2024 (dearness allowance at 50% of basic pay from 1 January 2024).
8. Department of Expenditure clarification dated 16 February 2017 (Deputation (Duty) Allowance reckoned on basic pay and not on Military Service Pay), reproduced at paragraph 7.6(d) of the 2024 consolidation.
9. Income-tax Act, 2025 (Act No. 30 of 2025), Section 15 (income chargeable under the head Salaries) and Schedule III (prescribed allowances); Central Board of Direct Taxes Notification No. 22/2026, G.S.R. 198(E), dated 20 March 2026 notifying the Income-tax Rules, 2026, rule 280 (the allowances prescribed for a Section 202 computation).
10. Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 2021, notified as G.S.R. 868(E) on 20 December 2021, Rule 31 (emoluments for pension and gratuity).