Dress Allowance

Dress allowance is a consolidated annual allowance paid to central government employees in uniformed and eligible cadres, governed by Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 19051/1/2017-E.IV dated 2 August 2017 with effect from 1 July 2017, at rates running from Rs. 6,250 to Rs. 34,750 a year by category and credited once each July. It replaced eight separate uniform-related allowances and ended the supply of uniform in kind.

The rate table has six rows, not four. Above the widely quoted Rs. 25,000 for officers sit two Special Protection Group rates, Rs. 34,750 for operational duty and Rs. 26,531.25 for non-operational duty, and below the four annual slabs sits a separate monthly rate of Rs. 2,250 for nursing personnel. The 7th Central Pay Commission had recommended four slabs and no monthly rate; the government departed from that recommendation on three counts when it notified the allowance.

This article sets out the full rate table and its authority, the 25% escalation tied to dearness allowance, the July payment and the proportionate rules for a mid-year joiner and a mid-year retiree, how the Defence forces, the CAPFs and the Indian Railways apply it, what the allowance did and did not subsume, whether it counts as pay for pension and tax purposes, and the tax position, which turns entirely on the regime. It is a child of the allowances hub.

Current rates by category

The Dress Allowance is a fixed annual amount set by the rate table in the body of Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 19051/1/2017-E.IV dated 2 August 2017. The current column applies from 1 January 2024, being the base rate enhanced by 25% under the escalation described below.

The table is in the body of the order. There is no annexure, and no order since 2017 has altered any of these base amounts.

Two details in row 4 are commonly stated wrongly. The Office Memorandum covers the executive staff of Customs, Central Excise and Narcotics, not the ministerial staff, and it names both the summer and the summer-cum-winter entitlement in the same row. Row 5 is the residual line, and paragraph 8.16.14 of the 7th CPC report expressly left ministries free to place such categories at Rs. 5,000 or at Rs. 10,000, which is why departmental rates for comparable posts sometimes differ.

The Special Protection Group rates

The Special Protection Group draws Rs. 34,750 a year on operational duty and Rs. 26,531.25 on non-operational duty, the two highest Dress Allowance rates in the schedule. The 7th Central Pay Commission had placed SPG personnel in the Rs. 10,000 slab at paragraph 8.16.14. The government moved them to Rs. 27,800 and Rs. 21,225 because the uniform allowance the group already drew exceeded the recommended rate, a change made through the Cabinet decision of 28 June 2017 and notified as one of the 34 modifications listed in Appendix I to Ministry of Finance Resolution No. 11-1/2016-IC dated 6 July 2017. Before the change, paragraph 8.16.2 of the report records that SPG personnel drew a clothing allowance of Rs. 9,000 a year.

The odd figure of Rs. 26,531.25 is arithmetic, not a typographical error: it is Rs. 21,225 raised by 25%. This is separate from the SPG Allowance, which is 55% of basic pay for operational duty and 27.5% for non-operational duty and compensates for the nature of the duty rather than the uniform.

Nursing personnel

Nursing personnel draw Rs. 2,250 a month, fixed at Rs. 1,800 a month by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Office Memorandum No. Z.28015/50/2017-N dated 31 August 2017 and raised by that Ministry’s Office Memorandum of the same number dated 17 September 2024 applying the 25% escalation. The annual entitlement is therefore Rs. 27,000. Eligibility runs to nursing personnel of all categories and at all levels in central government and union territory hospitals and institutions and in centrally funded autonomous bodies, who were receiving uniform material and the associated allowances before 1 July 2017.

Whether the disbursement is monthly is not settled by any order. The rate is expressed per month in every order, but paragraph 4 of the Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum of 2 August 2017 directs that the allowance be credited to salary once a year in July, and it carries no exception for row 6. Railway Board letter RBE No. 141/2017 lists nurses at Rs. 1,800 a month under that same annual-credit condition. On the text of the orders the monthly figure is the rate of accrual and the credit is annual.

Military Nursing Service officers are on a different track from civilian nursing personnel: they sit in row 3 at Rs. 18,750 a year. The 7th CPC had grouped MNS officers and civilian nurses together in the Rs. 15,000 row; the Office Memorandum dropped civilian nurses from that row and gave them the monthly rate instead. The separate Nursing Allowance of Rs. 4,800 a month, kept unchanged by paragraph 8.17.85 of the report with the same escalator, is payable in addition.

The 25% escalation with dearness allowance

The Dress Allowance rises by 25% each time dearness allowance rises by 50%. The rule is in paragraph 7 of Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 19051/1/2017-E.IV dated 2 August 2017 and originates in the fifth bullet of paragraph 8.16.14 of the 7th Central Pay Commission report. Dearness allowance reached 50% with effect from 1 January 2024, which is the effective date of the current rates.

No fresh order is needed for the step-up, and there is a specific instruction saying so. Department of Expenditure I.D. No. 2/5/2017-E.II(B) dated 20 March 2024, addressed to the Controller General of Accounts, records that no separate order with regard to the increase of allowances consequent on the increase in dearness allowance rates to 50% is required. The Department of Posts applied it by letter No. PP-08/2/2021-PAP-DOP dated 5 June 2024, directing payment of thirteen listed allowances, the Dress Allowance among them, at rates 25% above the existing rates with effect from 1 January 2024.

The next step comes at 100%, not at 75%. Dearness allowance is 60% of basic pay, so no further enhancement is due. The same escalator governs the risk and hardship allowance matrix and the children education allowance, which is why several fixed-rupee allowances stepped up together on 1 January 2024.

What the allowance replaced

Eight allowances were subsumed into the Dress Allowance, named in the opening paragraph of the Office Memorandum of 2 August 2017: the clothing allowance, the initial equipment allowance, the kit maintenance allowance, the robe allowance, the robe maintenance allowance, the shoe allowance, the uniform allowance and the washing allowance. Paragraph 2 states that allowances related to the maintenance and washing of uniform are subsumed and will not be payable separately, and paragraph 3 that categories earlier provided uniforms will henceforth not be provided with uniforms.

For nursing personnel the substitution is documented in figures. Paragraph 8.17.86 of the 7th CPC report records that the uniform allowance of Rs. 750 a month and the washing allowance of Rs. 450 a month were subsumed into the new Dress Allowance, and that the messing allowance of Rs. 75 a month, being petty in nature, was abolished outright rather than absorbed.

The outfit allowance is the case worth noting, because the 7th CPC listed it at item 121 of its abolition table for subsumption into the Dress Allowance and the government did not subsume it. Paragraph 6 of the Office Memorandum provides that the outfit allowance paid to Indian Foreign Service officers and employees will continue to be provided as before and is enhanced by 50%.

Special and protective clothing

Protective and operational clothing is outside the Dress Allowance and continues to be issued in kind. Paragraph 5 of the Office Memorandum of 2 August 2017 states that the allowance covers only the basic uniform of the employees, and that any special clothing such as that provided at Siachen Glacier or inside a submarine, the fluorescent clothing provided to trackmen of the Indian Railways, and the clothing provided to Intelligence Bureau personnel posted at high altitudes will continue to be provided by the concerned ministry as per existing norms.

This is the single most useful clarification for an employee in an operational cadre. The Rs. 6,250 a trackman receives buys the basic uniform; the fluorescent safety clothing that keeps the trackman visible on a live line remains a departmental issue and is not something the allowance is expected to fund. Railway Board letter RBE No. 141/2017 dated 3 October 2017 repeats the carve-out for trackmen expressly.

Payment in July

The Dress Allowance is credited directly to salary once a year, in the month of July, under paragraph 4 of Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 19051/1/2017-E.IV dated 2 August 2017. It is not part of pay, it is not paid month by month, and after it no separate washing, kit maintenance, robe or shoe allowance is payable. The same paragraph is reproduced word for word in the Ministry of Home Affairs order for the CAPFs and in the Railway Board letter, so the July credit is uniform across departments.

A single yearly credit of Rs. 12,500 or Rs. 25,000 appearing in the July salary is frequently mistaken for an arrear. It is the year’s Dress Allowance.

Proportionate payment for a mid-year joiner

An employee joining after the July payment draws a proportionate share, not the full annual amount. Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 19051/1/2017-E.IV dated 24 March 2025 provides at paragraph 3(i) that where a central government employee has joined service after the Dress Allowance has been paid in July, the allowance is given on a proportionate basis, and gives the formula at paragraph 3(ii): the amount divided by 12, multiplied by the number of months from the month of joining government service to the month of June of the following year. An officer in the Rs. 25,000 category joining in October draws nine twelfths, or Rs. 18,750.

The 2025 order replaced a narrower and more generous arrangement that had applied to the CAPFs alone. Ministry of Home Affairs Office Memorandum No. II-27012/36/2017-PF-I dated 1 April 2022 had provided that personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces and the Assam Rifles joining in any month of a calendar year receive the full Dress Allowance in the month of joining on first appointment, with the regular annual payment next due in July of the following calendar year. That was a full-amount rule for one group of forces, not a government-wide pro-rata rule.

Proportionate payment on mid-year retirement

An employee retiring during the year keeps only the proportionate share, and the excess is recoverable. Department of Expenditure I.D. No. 19051/2/2025-E.IV dated 16 September 2025 advised that the Dress Allowance for officials retiring mid-year be regulated on a proportionate basis in the same manner as prescribed for new joiners by the Office Memorandum of 24 March 2025, for consistency and uniformity.

The Department of Posts implemented it by letter F. No. 41-2/2017-PAP dated 24 September 2025, which supersedes its own orders of 5 March 2020 and 16 June 2025. Proportionate payment applies from June 2025; the excess is recovered from the October 2025 pay and allowances of officials retiring from October 2025 onwards; and no recovery is made from those who had already retired or who retired on 30 September 2025. The superseded rule, in the Department of Posts order of 5 March 2020, had been a blunt full-or-half test keyed to whether the retirement fell after December in the calendar year.

The orders address joining and retirement only. Nothing in the Office Memorandum of 2 August 2017 or in the 2025 orders regulates the allowance on resignation, death in service, deputation, long leave or suspension, and paragraph 4 of the 2025 order leaves all other terms and conditions of the 2017 order unchanged.

Application in the Defence forces and the CAPF

Officers of the Army, the Indian Air Force and the Navy draw Rs. 25,000 a year and personnel below officer rank draw Rs. 12,500, taken directly from rows 2 and 4 of the Department of Expenditure rate table. Coast Guard officers and personnel below officer rank sit in the same two rows. Military Nursing Service officers draw Rs. 18,750 under row 3.

For the CAPFs the implementing order is Ministry of Home Affairs Office Memorandum No. II-27012/36/CF-3396554/2017-PF-I dated 17 August 2017, issued to the Directors General, Financial Advisers and Pay and Accounts Officers of the BSF, CISF, CRPF, ITBP, NSG, SSB and Assam Rifles. It fixes Rs. 20,000 a year for officers of the CAPFs, the Assam Rifles and the NSG and Rs. 10,000 for personnel below officer rank, now Rs. 25,000 and Rs. 12,500, supersedes the existing orders on the uniform grant, the kit maintenance allowance and the washing allowance, and repeats the July credit, the high-altitude clothing carve-out and the 25% escalator.

Personnel below officer rank keep the Composite Personal Maintenance Allowance, minus the parts the Dress Allowance took over. Paragraph 8.17.24 of the 7th CPC report states that the washing allowance and the clothing maintenance allowance have been subsumed in the Dress Allowance for PBORs and that other components of the CPMA should be increased by 50%. Paragraphs 8.16.10 and 8.16.13 record why PBORs, who had previously been supplied uniform in kind and drew no uniform allowance, were brought into the allowance at all: the Commission accepted evidence that supply was late, sizes were averaged and shoes did not last three months, and concluded that granting the allowance would free PBORs from ill-fitting uniforms. The allowance sits alongside Military Service Pay, which recognises the nature of military service and is a different entitlement entirely.

Application on the Indian Railways

The Railway Board applied the Dress Allowance by letter PC-VII No. 64, RBE No. 141/2017, File No. PC-VII/2017/I/7/5/7 dated 3 October 2017, addressed to the General Managers and Chief Administrative Officers of all zonal railways and production units. Officers of the Railway Protection Force and the RPSF draw Rs. 20,000 a year, RPF personnel below officer rank and station masters of the Indian Railways draw Rs. 10,000, other categories supplied uniform draw Rs. 5,000, and nurses draw Rs. 1,800 a month. Those figures now stand at Rs. 25,000, Rs. 12,500, Rs. 6,250 and Rs. 2,250 respectively.

Trackmen and running staff are named expressly in the Rs. 5,000 line, in both the Commission’s recommendation and the Department of Expenditure order. The letter subsumes the kit maintenance, shoe, uniform and washing allowances on the Railways, supersedes the earlier shoe allowance orders, ends the supply of uniform to staff who were previously issued it, and preserves the fluorescent clothing for trackmen. The 7th CPC dealt with station masters separately at paragraph 11.40.55 of its report, which records that separate recommendations were made on the Dress Allowance for that cadre.

Coverage: ministries, states and autonomous bodies

The Department of Expenditure order binds the ministries and departments of the Government of India, and it anticipates a family of departmental orders rather than a single instrument. Paragraph 9 of the Office Memorandum of 2 August 2017 states that separate orders will be issued by the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the Ministry of External Affairs, the Department of Revenue, the Department of Personnel and Training and the Cabinet Secretariat in respect of their employees. Paragraph 10 requires the orders for the Indian Audit and Accounts Department to issue in consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor General.

For the common categories of Group C and erstwhile Group D employees who are supplied uniform and required to wear it regularly, the Department of Personnel and Training issued its own order on 31 August 2017 at Rs. 5,000 a year, superseding the existing orders on the uniform allowance, the washing allowance, stitching charges and the shoe allowance.

A state or union territory government adopts the allowance only by issuing its own order; the Government of Puducherry, for instance, circulated the Government of India orders through its Finance Department. Autonomous bodies are covered only where an order says so. Nursing personnel in centrally funded autonomous bodies are covered expressly by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare order of 31 August 2017, and its 17 September 2024 escalation order is addressed to AIIMS New Delhi, PGIMER Chandigarh, JIPMER Puducherry and NEIGRIHMS Shillong among others. There is no general instruction extending the allowance to autonomous bodies as a class.

Whether it counts as pay

The Dress Allowance is not pay for any pay-linked computation. The order contains no clause saying so; the result follows from the definitions in each governing rule.

Dearness allowance is computed on basic pay in the pay matrix under the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules 2016, so no dearness allowance is paid on the Dress Allowance. National Pension System contributions, both the employee’s and the government’s, are computed on basic pay plus dearness allowance, and the Dress Allowance is neither. Retirement and death gratuity are governed by Rule 45 of the CCS (Pension) Rules 2021, which reckons emoluments as defined in Rule 31, that is basic pay, with a proviso adding only the dearness allowance admissible on the date of retirement or death. Pension is 50% of emoluments under Rule 31 or of average emoluments under Rule 32, whichever is more favourable, and the Dress Allowance enters neither. Subscription and cover under the Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme turn on the employee’s group, which is set by pay level.

Income tax is the exception. The Dress Allowance is part of gross salary and appears in Part B of Form 16; it is brought to tax as salary and then either exempted or not, depending on the regime.

Tax treatment

The Dress Allowance is fully taxable under the new tax regime, which has been the default since the financial year 2023-24, and exempt under the old regime only to the extent the uniform expenditure is actually incurred. This is the point most often stated wrongly, because the belief that a uniform allowance is always tax-free was correct until 2020 and is now correct only for an employee who has opted out of the default.

Under the old regime the exemption is Section 10(14)(i) of the Income-tax Act 1961 read with Rule 2BB(1)(f) of the Income-tax Rules 1962, which covers “any allowance granted to meet the expenditure incurred on the purchase or maintenance of uniform for wear during the performance of the duties of an office or employment of profit”. The cap is in the section itself, which exempts such an allowance only “to the extent to which such expenses are actually incurred for that purpose”. An employee who receives Rs. 25,000 and spends Rs. 15,000 is exempt on Rs. 15,000. Neither the section nor the rule prescribes a form, a certificate or a retention period, so the requirement is substantive rather than procedural: the expenditure must have been incurred, and the burden falls on the employee if the claim is examined.

Under the new regime the exemption is gone. CBDT Notification No. 38/2020 dated 26 June 2020, G.S.R. 415(E), the Income-tax (13th Amendment) Rules 2020, inserted sub-rule (3) into Rule 2BB listing the allowances that survive; that sub-rule was then substituted by CBDT Notification No. 43/2023 dated 21 June 2023, G.S.R. 452(E), the Income-tax (Tenth Amendment) Rules 2023, to match Section 115BAC(1A) as amended by the Finance Act 2023. The substituted Rule 2BB(3) retains only clauses (a), (b) and (c) of Rule 2BB(1), being travel on tour or transfer, the daily allowance on tour or on a transfer journey, and the conveyance allowance for the performance of duties, together with serial number 11 of the table under sub-rule (2), the transport allowance for a blind, deaf and dumb or orthopaedically handicapped employee. Clause (f) is not among them.

An employee who wants the exemption must therefore opt out of the default regime, and for most uniformed employees the Rs. 25,000 at stake is small against the wider old versus new regime comparison. The income tax for government employees article covers that choice.

What the 7th CPC recommended and what the government changed

The recommendation is at paragraph 8.16.14 of the 7th Central Pay Commission report, in Chapter 8.16, headed “Allowances related to Uniform”, and is summarised at paragraph 17.29: uniform related allowances be subsumed in a single Dress Allowance, including shoes. The Commission recommended four annual slabs of Rs. 20,000, Rs. 15,000, Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 5,000, no monthly rate for any category, and no special rate for the Special Protection Group.

The government changed three things when it notified the allowance. SPG personnel, recommended at Rs. 10,000, were given Rs. 27,800 and Rs. 21,225. Civilian nurses, recommended at Rs. 15,000 a year alongside Military Nursing Service officers, were removed from that row and given Rs. 1,800 a month. The Indian Foreign Service outfit allowance, listed for subsumption at item 121 of the Commission’s abolition table, was retained and enhanced by 50%.

The route from report to order ran through a committee. Paragraph 7 of Resolution No. 1-2/2016-IC dated 25 July 2016 referred the allowance recommendations, other than dearness allowance, to the Committee on Allowances, which reported on 27 April 2017. The Cabinet approved the package on 28 June 2017 with modifications in 34 allowances, and Ministry of Finance Resolution No. 11-1/2016-IC dated 6 July 2017 notified the decisions with the modifications at Appendix I and the recommendation-and-decision statement at Appendix II. Revised rates became admissible from 1 July 2017. The Dress Allowance rates for the SPG are one of those 34 modifications. The wider picture of what the Commission removed is in the abolished allowances article.

Where it sits in a uniformed employee’s pay

The Dress Allowance is the smallest of the elements a uniformed employee draws above basic pay, and it is targeted at one cost. A CAPF officer in Level 10 with an entry cell of Rs. 56,100 draws Rs. 25,000 of Dress Allowance across the whole year, against Military Service Pay or the risk and hardship allowance matrix and the Special Duty Allowance for a North East, Ladakh or island posting, each of which is monthly and several times larger. Dearness allowance at 60% of that basic pay alone runs to more in a single month than the Dress Allowance does in a year.

The four elements are not substitutes. The Dress Allowance meets the cost of the uniform, Military Service Pay recognises the nature of military service, and the risk and hardship and special duty allowances compensate for where and how the duty is performed. The broader picture is in the take-home salary article and the allowances hub.

Related Articles

• Allowances for central government employees
• Abolished allowances under the 7th CPC
• Uniform allowance
• Washing allowance
• Nursing allowance
• Risk and hardship allowance
• Special Duty Allowance
• Hard Area Allowance
• Military Service Pay
• Central Armed Police Forces
• Railway Protection Force
• Committee on Allowances
• Special Protection Group
• Outfit allowance
• Composite Personal Maintenance Allowance
• Non-practising allowance
• Running allowance
• House rent allowance
• Transport allowance
• Travelling allowance (TA)
• Children education allowance
• Conveyance allowance
• Dearness allowance
• Take-home salary for central government employees
• Income tax for government employees
• Old versus new tax regime
• Central government pension
• National Pension System
• Pay matrix
• Defence pay matrix
• Basic pay
• 7th Central Pay Commission
• 8th Central Pay Commission
• Department of Expenditure
• Department of Personnel and Training
• Central government employees in India
• CAPF constable salary
• Staff nurse salary
• Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme
• 7th CPC salary calculator
• Salary by pay level

External references

• Department of Expenditure
• Department of Expenditure: orders and circulars
• Department of Expenditure: Dress Allowance, modification in the guidelines, 24 March 2025
• Ministry of Home Affairs
• Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
• Ministry of Railways
• Income Tax Department: Income-tax Rules, 1962

References

1. Report of the Seventh Central Pay Commission (19 November 2015), Chapter 8.16 (“Allowances related to Uniform”), paragraph 8.16.14, with paragraphs 8.16.2, 8.16.10, 8.16.13, 8.17.24, 8.17.85, 8.17.86, 11.40.55 and 17.29.
2. Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 19051/1/2017-E.IV dated 2 August 2017 (Dress Allowance rates, the eight subsumed allowances, the protective-clothing carve-out and the July credit, with effect from 1 July 2017).
3. Ministry of Finance Resolution No. 11-1/2016-IC dated 6 July 2017 (decisions on the 7th CPC allowance recommendations, with 34 modifications at Appendix I), and Resolution No. 1-2/2016-IC dated 25 July 2016, paragraph 7 (reference of allowances to the Committee on Allowances, which reported on 27 April 2017).
4. Ministry of Home Affairs Office Memorandum No. II-27012/36/CF-3396554/2017-PF-I dated 17 August 2017 (Dress Allowance to the CAPFs, the Assam Rifles and the NSG), and Office Memorandum No. II-27012/36/2017-PF-I dated 1 April 2022 (payment to CAPF and Assam Rifles personnel joining after 1 July).
5. Ministry of Railways (Railway Board) letter PC-VII No. 64, RBE No. 141/2017, File No. PC-VII/2017/I/7/5/7 dated 3 October 2017 (Dress Allowance on the Indian Railways).
6. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Office Memorandum No. Z.28015/50/2017-N dated 31 August 2017 (Dress Allowance to nursing personnel at Rs. 1,800 a month), and the Office Memorandum of the same number dated 17 September 2024 (25% increase).
7. Department of Expenditure I.D. No. 2/5/2017-E.II(B) dated 20 March 2024 to the Controller General of Accounts (no separate order required for the 25% increase), applied by Department of Posts letter No. PP-08/2/2021-PAP-DOP dated 5 June 2024.
8. Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 19051/1/2017-E.IV dated 24 March 2025 (proportionate payment for a mid-year joiner), and Department of Expenditure I.D. No. 19051/2/2025-E.IV dated 16 September 2025 (proportionate payment on mid-year retirement), applied by Department of Posts letter F. No. 41-2/2017-PAP dated 24 September 2025.
9. Income-tax Act 1961, Section 10(14)(i); Income-tax Rules 1962, Rule 2BB(1)(f) and Rule 2BB(3); CBDT Notification No. 38/2020 dated 26 June 2020 (G.S.R. 415(E)) and Notification No. 43/2023 dated 21 June 2023 (G.S.R. 452(E)).
10. CCS (Pension) Rules 2021, Rules 31, 32 and 45 (emoluments, average emoluments, and the gratuity base).