Government accommodation

Government accommodation is a residence owned, leased or requisitioned by the Government and allotted on licence to a government servant, who pays a monthly licence fee in place of drawing house rent allowance. For central government servants the power to lay down the principles of allotment sits in Fundamental Rule 45, and the licence fee is capped by FR 45-A at 10% of monthly emoluments.

There is no single pool. The Directorate of Estates allots General Pool Residential Accommodation under the Central Government General Pool Residential Accommodation Rules, 2017 (G.S.R. 598(E), 16 June 2017). The Railway Board runs railway quarters on its own licence fee table, which it last revised from 1 July 2026. The Ministry of Defence houses service personnel and defence civilians under its own scales, and the Central Armed Police Forces allot family quarters through the CAPF eAwas portal. Ministries and departments keep departmental pools. An All India Services officer serving a State is housed by the State.

The pay consequences run the same way in every pool. Allotment ends house rent allowance, a licence fee is recovered from salary, a transfer or retirement starts a retention clock, and for a General Pool allottee the house has to be cleared before the retirement gratuity is paid in full. The accommodation also has an income-tax value, fixed by rule 15 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 at the licence fee less the rent paid.

This article sets out the pools side by side, the Fundamental Rules behind the licence fee, the trade against house rent allowance, the railway, defence, CAPF, All India Services and departmental arrangements, hired houses, retention across pools, and the tax treatment.

Pools of government accommodation

Central government housing is divided into pools by the authority that owns the houses, and each pool has its own allotting office, rules and licence fee schedule. The table places them side by side.

The Directorate of Estates licence fee OMs apply to General Pool housing and to departmental pools throughout the country, and name three exclusions: substandard and unclassified accommodation of the Ministry of Defence, accommodation for service personnel of the Ministry of Defence, and accommodation under the control of the Ministry of Railways. Each of the three fixes its own charge.

Fundamental Rules 45 to 45-C

The Fundamental Rules give the Central Government the power to allot residences and fix the licence fee. FR 45 lets it make rules or issue orders “laying down the principles governing the allotment to officers serving under its administrative control, for use by them as residences, of such buildings owned or leased by it”, with different principles permitted for different localities and classes of residence.

FR 45-A sets the charge. Clause IV(b)(i) requires the occupant to pay “the standard licence fee as defined in Clause III above” or 10% of monthly emoluments, whichever is less. Clause IV(c)(ii) is the power behind the country-wide flat rates now in use: the Government may “prescribe flat rate of monthly licence fee applicable throughout the country based on the cost of construction and plinth area, living area of the type of accommodation allotted”, again subject to the ceiling that the amount taken from any officer does not exceed 10% of monthly emoluments. Clause IV(c)(iii) lists eight cases where a higher fee may be charged, including an officer who does not vacate after cancellation of the allotment and one who, or whose family, owns a house at the station.

FR 45-B covers Government servants outside FR 45-A and expressly excludes “those occupying residences belonging to the Indian Railway or rented at the cost of railway revenues”. For a leased residence, FR 45-B III(a)(i) makes the standard licence fee the sum paid to the lessor. FR 45-C defines the emoluments on which the 10% ceiling runs: pay, fixed additions to pay, compensatory allowances other than travelling, children’s education, uniform, clothing and outfit allowances, exchange compensation allowance, certain pensions, and the subsistence grant during suspension, with the difference recovered if pay is later allowed for the period.

The operative allotment codes are made under different powers. The General Pool Residential Accommodation Rules, 2017 recite the proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution, not FR 45. In practice FR 45 to 45-C supply the licence fee ceiling and the waiver power, and the pool rules supply entitlement, allotment, retention and damages.

Licence fee and the 10% ceiling

The licence fee is a flat monthly charge for the type of house, recovered from salary by the Drawing and Disbursing Officer. For General Pool housing, rule 74 of the General Pool Residential Accommodation Rules, 2017 revises it every three years on the Average All India Consumer Price Index, and the latest revision took effect from 1 July 2026 under Directorate of Estates OM No. 18011/2/2015-Pol.III dated 17 July 2026. No Pay Commission sets it.

Selected rows from Directorate of Estates OM No. 18011/2/2015-Pol.III dated 17 July 2026. The full eleven-type schedule, with the 2020 and 2023 rates, is on the Directorate of Estates page.

At these rates the FR 45-A ceiling of 10% of emoluments does not bind anyone in General Pool housing. A Level 1 employee at the minimum pay of Rs. 18,000 has a ceiling of at least Rs. 1,800 a month on pay alone, nearly eight times the Rs. 230 Type I fee. The ceiling matters for a leased house, where the standard licence fee under FR 45-B is the rent paid to the lessor and can exceed 10% of emoluments.

FR 45-A V is the waiver power. In special circumstances and for reasons that are recorded, the Central Government may grant licence fee-free accommodation to an officer or a class of officers by general or special order, or waive or reduce the licence fee for an individual officer by special order. Rule 40(2) of the General Pool Residential Accommodation Rules, 2017 gives a licence fee-free allottee one month’s retention after retirement without licence fee; after that month the allottee pays licence fee for any further retention.

Government accommodation and house rent allowance

An employee who occupies government accommodation at the station of posting does not draw house rent allowance for that station, in any pool. Paragraph 4.1 of Department of Expenditure OM No. 2/4/2022-E.II(B) dated 30 December 2022 bars the allowance to an occupant of General Pool Residential accommodation, from the date the house is handed over in immediately habitable condition, and a refusal of an allotment stops it from the date of allotment. For railway employees, paragraph 1706(a)(i) of the Indian Railway Establishment Code Volume II bars the allowance to an employee who “occupies accommodation provided by the Government”, and Railway Board letter No. E(P&A)II/2024/HRA-2 dated 12 April 2024 restated that bar after a vigilance case in which a sharer of a railway quarter had drawn it.

The railway code is narrower in one respect. Paragraph 1706(a)(i)(a) also withholds the allowance from a railway employee who “does not incur any expenditure on rent”, a condition the central master order of 2022 does not contain for other central servants; owning the house lived in does not bar house rent allowance under the 2022 order.

The trade is measurable. The table computes it for three cases at the first cell of each level, using house rent allowance at 30%, 20% and 10% of basic pay, the rates in force since 1 January 2024, under city classification for HRA and the licence fees in force from 1 July 2026.

Pay-matrix cells from the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016; house rent allowance under DoE OM No. 2/5/2017-E.II(B) dated 7 July 2017; General Pool licence fee under OM No. 18011/2/2015-Pol.III dated 17 July 2026; railway licence fee for the 60 to 65 sq m slab under Railway Board letter No. F(X)I-2002/11/2 dated 23 September 2026. Salary-calculator.in computation.

The allotment pays only where a comparable private house costs more than the last column. The comparison is before tax: house rent allowance is taxable salary, and under the default new regime no part of it is exempt. In a Z-class town the allowance given up is 10% of basic pay, a third of the X-class figure, while the licence fee stays the same, so the break-even rent falls to Rs. 5,230 for the Level 7 case. The take-home salary article works the same trade through a full pay slip.

Three further bars in paragraph 5.1 of the 2022 order turn on accommodation held by somebody else: sharing a quarter allotted to another government servant, living in accommodation allotted to a parent, son or daughter by a government or public body, and having a spouse allotted accommodation at the same station. A retained quarter at the old station can run alongside the allowance at the new one: paragraph 4.6 allows house rent allowance at the new station for up to eight months from the date of transfer to an employee permitted to keep the old quarter.

General Pool Residential Accommodation

General Pool Residential Accommodation is the common pool for employees of offices the Directorate of Estates has declared eligible, and it is the only pool with a country-wide allotment code. The Directorate of Estates runs it directly in nine cities, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Shimla, Chandigarh, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Nagpur, and the Central Public Works Department administers the rest. Allotment, retention requests and the No Demand Certificate run through the eSampada portal.

Rule 8 of the General Pool Residential Accommodation Rules, 2017 ties the type of house to the pay matrix level, from Type I for Level 1 to Type VIII for Levels 17 and 18. Seniority runs from the date of priority, and rule 13(1) allots vacancies from a unified waiting list for each type through the Automated System of Allotment. The Directorate of Estates page covers entitlement, special pools, retention, damages and eviction under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971 in detail.

Tenure pools for officers on central deputation

The General Pool Residential Accommodation Rules, 2017 carve pools out of General Pool for officers who come to Delhi on the Central Staffing Scheme. Rule 28 maintains a Tenure Officers Pool for officers of the Indian Administrative Service, the Indian Police Service and the Indian Forest Service posted under the Scheme with the Central Government, the Delhi Government or the office of a Resident Commissioner of a State or Union territory at Delhi. The proviso to rule 28(1) caps officers in a Resident Commissioner’s office at Type VI A, and rule 28(2) fixes inter se seniority by service and batch against counterparts on central deputation.

Rule 29 keeps a separate Tenure Pool for officers of non-All India Services on central deputation under the Scheme, and lets an officer retain the house on reversion or posting in Delhi if the officer’s date of priority is covered, with an equal house moved from General Pool into the Tenure Pool to replace it. Rule 32 keeps a Transit Hostel Pool for officers joining as Deputy Secretary or Director, valid until the officer takes possession of an entitled house or for six months, whichever is earlier.

Railway quarters

Railway housing is outside FR 45-B by that rule’s own text and outside the Directorate of Estates licence fee OMs, and the Railway Board sets both the charge and the retention periods. The licence fee is a flat rate by plinth area, not by the General Pool type table. Railway Board letter No. F(X)I-2002/11/2 dated 23 September 2026 revised it “all over Indian Railways” with effect from 1 July 2026, replacing the rates of 1 July 2023 set by the Board’s letter of 27 October 2023, and does not apply to substandard accommodation.

Lowest and highest slabs of each type from Annexure A to Railway Board letter No. F(X)I-2002/11/2 dated 23 September 2026. A servant quarter is Rs. 130 and a garage Rs. 90 from 1 July 2026; Type IV rates also apply to officers’ transit flats, and any quarter above 350 sq m pays the top Type V rate.

A railway Type III quarter at the smallest slab costs Rs. 470 a month from 1 July 2026, against Rs. 740 for a General Pool Type III house, a difference of Rs. 270 a month for the same type label. The two tables measure different things and a railway type does not map onto a General Pool type.

Retention is set by Railway Board letters, including a series issued in March 2026 by the full Board under its power “to make reasonable relaxations in public interest”. RBE 29/2026 (No. E(G) 2026/Awas Niti/QR/5, 30 March 2026) allows a railway servant to retain only one railway quarter, at the first station of retention or the current place of posting. A retainee also allotted a quarter at the new station must vacate it within two months of relinquishing charge there, after which the charge on it equals the house rent allowance for that station on the employee’s basic pay. On a transfer between zonal railways generally, a quarter may be retained under the “2+6” rule, two months on normal licence fee and six months on double the normal licence fee, and on normal licence fee where superannuation is due within one year of the transfer order. Transfers to the zones listed at serial (i) of the letter, including SECR, WCR and ECoR, add retention on special licence fee or on the children’s education ground after the 2+6 period, and a posting to NF Railway, SCoR, Jammu, Rayagada or the USBRL Project keeps the quarter on normal licence fee under paragraph 1-B of RBE 23/2026.

RBE 24/2026 (No. E(G) 2026/Awas Niti/QR/2, 18 March 2026) restates the retirement rule of RBE 99/2020 (No. E(G) 2000 QR 1-23, 24 November 2020): four months on normal rent plus four months on double the normal rent for superannuation, voluntary retirement, compulsory retirement and retirement on medical invalidation. Resignation, dismissal and removal carry one month on normal rent under paragraph 15 of RBE 8/90. The 2026 letter added technical resignation, which earlier instructions did not cover, at four months on the rent continuing on the date of the technical resignation. RBE 27/2026 (No. E(G) 2026/Awas Niti/QR/4, 23 March 2026) allows a railway officer on Central Staffing Scheme deputation to keep the quarter at the previous station on normal licence fee for the whole deputation. Earmarked accommodation, tied to a post, is excluded by paragraph 3 of RBE 24/2026 and paragraph 5 of RBE 29/2026. The railway employees article covers the separate railway codes for pay, leave and pension.

Defence accommodation

Defence housing falls into two populations with different rules: service personnel, for whom the 7th Central Pay Commission replaced quarters-related allowances with house rent allowance, and defence civilians paid from the Defence Services Estimates, who are housed under the Scales of Accommodation.

Service personnel and the end of CILQ

Until 30 June 2017, married personnel below officer rank drew Compensation in Lieu of Quarters (CILQ), which the 7th Central Pay Commission described as “a composite allowance, meant to compensate for hiring of house, furniture, electricity and water”, payable to married personnel aged 25 or over within the Authorised Married Establishment. The rates in the report were Rs. 5,400, Rs. 3,600 and Rs. 2,400 a month in X, Y and Z cities for a Sepoy or Naik, Rs. 6,300, Rs. 4,500 and Rs. 3,000 for a Havildar, and Rs. 8,100, Rs. 5,400 and Rs. 3,600 for Junior Commissioned Officers, with Non-Combatants (Enrolled) at Rs. 2,700, Rs. 1,800 and Rs. 1,200.

Paragraph 8.7.27 of the report recommended that the Authorised Married Establishment and age-25 restrictions be done away with and that “CILQ, FAA and SNLQ should also be abolished”. In their place it set a house rent allowance structure: full house rent allowance at the selected place of residence of dependants during field postings, a reduced rate, the applicable rate reduced by 5% but not below the Z-class rate, for personnel required to live in barracks as a functional requirement, and no house rent allowance where government accommodation is available. The Committee on Allowances recommended at paragraph 4.5.3 of its report of 27 April 2017 that the recommendation be accepted without change, and the revised allowances took effect from 1 July 2017 under Resolution No. 11-1/2016-IC of 6 July 2017. Military service pay is excluded from basic pay for the allowance, so the base is the defence pay matrix cell alone.

Defence civilians

The Scales of Accommodation for Defence Services 2022, issued by the Engineer-in-Chief’s Branch on 14 June 2022, set married accommodation for civilians paid from the Defence Services Estimates in Part V. Paragraph 67.4.2 provides that married accommodation for defence civilians “will be provided at all the stations where MES cover exist”, and paragraph 67.4.3 sets the planning ceiling at 60% of Group A and B civilians and 35% of Group C civilians in a station, where the houses are likely to stay occupied for more than five years. No new Type I houses are to be built. Married accommodation for key personnel, including Military Engineer Services staff, is authorised at 100% under paragraph 67.4.5, and the scales apply to new accommodation only under paragraph 67.4.1.

The Ministry of Defence sets the licence fee by its own letters. Letter No. 1(1)/2014-D(Q&C) dated 1 July 2022 revised the flat rates for defence civilians and service officers from 1 July 2020, consequent on the Directorate’s OM of 29 June 2020, and set substandard or unclassified accommodation for service personnel at 75% of the normal rate. Defence civilians in offices on the Directorate’s Delhi eligibility list, such as 505 Army Base Workshop in Delhi Cantonment, can also be allotted General Pool housing.

Central Armed Police Forces

Central Armed Police Force family accommodation is allotted through CAPF eAwas, the online portal launched on 1 September 2022 for family accommodation of the CAPFs and the Assam Rifles. The Minister of State for Home Affairs told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply reported on 11 February 2026 that 1,46,566 family accommodations had been allotted through it between 1 September 2022 and 5 February 2026, and 1,324 through inter-force allotment between forces.

Ministry of Home Affairs, written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Press Information Bureau release ID 2226445 of 11 February 2026.

The Directorate-General offices of the BSF, CRPF, ITBP, CISF and SSB in Delhi are on the Directorate of Estates list of offices eligible for General Pool housing, and the eSampada pool codes include a separate CISF pool.

Two orders deal with CAPF families left behind at a non-family posting. Directorate of Estates OM No. 12035/4/2015-Pol.II dated 7 August 2024 lets civilian employees, expressly including CAPF personnel, posted to a non-family station keep the General Pool house at the last station on normal licence fee, within a three-year ceiling under rule 43 of the 2017 Rules. Ministry of Home Affairs OM No. II-27012/29/2018-PF-I dated 22 January 2019 then allows house rent allowance at the old station or the selected place of residence, in addition to the allowance at the new place of posting, once the family vacates the retained quarter after the three years and while the member stays posted at the non-family station, for postings in the North Eastern Region, Sikkim, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Jammu and Kashmir and Left Wing Extremism areas.

A separate concession covers the Kashmir Valley. Ministry of Home Affairs OM No. I-45024/72/2004-Org/PF-V dated 8 November 2019 allowed CAPF personnel posted to the Valley who leave their families at the last station to draw additional house rent allowance at the Y-class rate, then 16% of basic pay, “except officials who have retained Government accommodation to accommodate their families”. The OM ran to 31 December 2019 and was to be extended as and when the Department of Personnel and Training extended the facility for civilian employees; a CRPF signal reproducing it records the civilian facility from 1 January 2020 to 31 July 2024. The Ministry’s answer to Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 400 on 22 July 2026, the latest statement, listed the concession at the Y-class rate of 20% of basic pay, again only where retention of government accommodation has not been availed. A family keeps either the retained quarter or the additional allowance, not both.

All India Services officers in the States

An IAS, IPS or Indian Forest Service officer serving a State is housed by that State. The Explanation to Rule 2(a) of the All India Services (Compensatory Allowance) Rules, 1954 treats rent-free accommodation as a compensatory allowance, granted under the State’s orders through Rule 3 of those Rules, and a house allotted from a State pool is otherwise charged under the State’s allotment rules. For any matter without an All India Services rule, rule 2(b) of the All India Services (Conditions of Service-Residuary Matters) Rules, 1960 applies, until regulations are made and subject to exceptions the Central Government may order, “the rules, regulations and orders applicable to officers of the State Civil Services, Class I”. The IPS salary and IAS salary articles note the result: house rent allowance and accommodation vary by cadre, and many field posts carry an official residence.

The State rules differ from the central code. Meghalaya’s Allotment of Government Residences (General Pool) Rules, 1990, which came into force on 1 January 1990, provided for allotment of houses through a House Allotment Committee according to rank and status, with preference for houses designed for posts such as Deputy Commissioner, and rule 4 charged the lower of 10% of monthly emoluments and the standard rent under the Meghalaya Fundamental Rule 44. That is the same 10% ceiling as FR 45-A.

On central deputation the officer moves into the central system: the Tenure Officers Pool under rule 28 of the 2017 Rules in Delhi, with AGMUT cadre officers on central deputation ranked in the same seniority list. Rule 43 of the 2017 Rules caps retention of a General Pool house by an AGMUT cadre officer posted to a non-family station at three years.

Departmental pools of other offices

A ministry or department that owns houses for its own staff allots them under its own rules, but charges the Directorate of Estates licence fee. The licence fee OMs of the Directorate apply their flat rates to departmental pools throughout the country, and a departmental pool quarter therefore carries the same Rs. 740 for Type III from 1 July 2026 as a General Pool house.

The Indian Audit and Accounts Department keeps its own pool. The Allotment of Government Residences (IA&AD) Rules, 2021, issued by the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India and in force from 1 April 2021, follow the 2017 General Pool Rules closely. Rule 10(2)(i) provides that the normal licence fee “shall be revised every three years based on the Average All India Consumer Price Index (CPI) by the Central Government and shall be applicable to all types of IA&AD pool accommodation throughout the country”, and rule 10(5) charges special licence fee for temporary allotment at rates specified by the Directorate of Estates. Rule 10(1)(iv) cancels an allotment where licence fee has not been received for four continuous months, the same trigger as rule 73(4) of the General Pool Rules.

Rule 35 of the 2017 General Pool Rules governs the reverse movement, an alternate allotment from General Pool to an occupant of a departmental pool house.

Hired and leased accommodation

A department does not rent a private house for residential use at a station where the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs provides General Pool accommodation. Condition (9) of Annexure II to the Delegation of Financial Powers Rules, 2024 (S.O. 1543(E), 26 March 2024) requires departments normally to take accommodation on rent in consultation with the CPWD, the Directorate of Estates or the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. It adds that “Wherever general pool accommodations are provided by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, renting may not be resorted to by the Departments”. The reasonableness of rent, area and period of hire follows the CPWD and Directorate guidelines, and for residences abroad the Ministry of External Affairs sets rent ceilings in consultation with its Financial Adviser.

The occupant of a hired house pays licence fee, not the market rent. FR 45-A III(a) gives a leased or requisitioned residence within the officer’s entitlement the same standard licence fee as a government-owned residence of similar living area, and FR 45-B III(a)(i) makes the standard licence fee for a leased residence the sum paid to the lessor. The occupant’s payment is ordinarily capped at 10% of monthly emoluments, by FR 45-A IV(b)(i) or FR 45-B IV(b)(i), so the department bears the rest of the rent; both rules list cases, such as a house above the officer’s status taken at the officer’s request, where a higher fee may be charged.

FR 45-A III(a) still cross-refers to condition (9) of item 16 of Schedule V to the Delegation of Financial Powers Rules, 1978, which were repealed from 1 April 2024; condition (9) of Annexure II to the 2024 Rules now covers renting in different words.

Retention after transfer, retirement and exit compared

Every pool lets an allottee keep the house for a fixed period after the event that ends entitlement, and the periods differ between the General Pool Rules and the railway letters. A licence fee for the retention period is payable in advance under rule 77 of the General Pool Rules, and occupation after the period ends attracts damages.

On retirement the General Pool Rules give six months at the normal fee, while the railway letters give eight months in all, the last four at double the fee. The railway letters are more generous where superannuation is near, keeping the normal fee through a late transfer. Resignation and dismissal or removal carry one month in both.

Income-tax treatment of government accommodation

Government accommodation is a perquisite taxed under the head “Salaries”, but for a central servant who pays the full licence fee its taxable value is nil. Section 17(1)(a) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 includes “the value of rent-free accommodation provided to the assessee by his employer”, and Section 17(1)(b) the value of accommodation provided “at a concessional rate which is in excess of rent recoverable from or payable by the assessee”, both computed as prescribed.

Rule 15(2)(a) of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 prescribes the computation in Table I. Serial 1 values unfurnished accommodation provided by the Central Government or any State Government to its employees at the licence fee that the Central or State Government determines for the accommodation under its own rules, reduced by the rent actually paid by the employee. Where the licence fee recovered from salary equals the licence fee fixed under the pool rules, the difference is nil. A value arises only where the fee is waived or reduced under FR 45-A V, or where furniture is supplied, in which case the furnished column adds the furniture value under rule 15(2)(e).

The valuation changes on deputation. Rule 15(2)(f) provides that where the Central or a State Government provides accommodation to an employee serving on deputation with a body or undertaking under its control, that body or undertaking is deemed to be the employer, and the accommodation is valued under Table I serial 2(a) as if the employer owned it: 10% of salary in cities with a 2011-census population above 40 lakh, 7.5% in cities above 15 lakh and up to 40 lakh, and 5% elsewhere, reduced by the rent actually paid. An officer who keeps a General Pool house while on deputation to a public sector undertaking can therefore carry a taxable perquisite far larger than the licence fee. The perquisite valuation of government accommodation and income tax for government employees articles take the computation further.

House rent allowance and accommodation are taxed on different footings. The allowance is taxable salary; only under the old regime is part of it exempt for rent actually paid, under serial 11 of Schedule III to the Income-tax Act, 2025 read with rule 279 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026, covered in the HRA exemption article, and the exemption is not available to an employee who draws no allowance because a quarter has been allotted.

Vacating government accommodation, dues and pension

For a central government servant under the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 holding General Pool housing, the final charge on the house is settled before the retirement gratuity is paid in full, under the dues rules set out in withholding and recovery from gratuity. Rule 68(5) of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 allows 10% of the gratuity to be withheld where the Directorate of Estates cannot yet determine the outstanding licence fee, and Rule 68(6) releases it on production of the No Demand Certificate after the house is actually vacated. Rule 68(7)(a) sets 14 days from an application made after vacation for issuing the certificate, and Rule 68(7) makes the Directorate liable for interest at the General Provident Fund rate on the excess withheld where it is late.

An allottee who stays beyond the retention period owes damages at a multiple of the licence fee, not the licence fee itself. For General Pool housing in Delhi, Directorate of Estates OM No. 18011/1/2015-Pol.III dated 7 September 2016 fixes the first month at 40 times the licence fee for Types I to IV, and the Directorate’s frequently asked questions, revised 16 December 2020, state that paying damages does not revive house rent allowance.

Related Articles

• Directorate of Estates
• House rent allowance
• City classification for HRA
• HRA exemption
• Take-home salary of a central government employee
• No Demand Certificate
• Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971
• Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
• Central Public Works Department
• Fundamental Rules
• Emoluments
• Article 309
• Perquisite valuation of government accommodation
• Income tax for government employees
• Income-tax Act, 2025
• Railway employees
• Central Armed Police Forces
• Military service pay
• Defence pay matrix
• Committee on Allowances
• 7th Central Pay Commission
• All India Services
• IAS salary
• IPS salary
• Central Staffing Scheme
• Deputation in central government
• Comptroller and Auditor General of India
• Delegation of Financial Powers Rules
• Department of Expenditure
• Pay matrix
• Minimum pay
• Drawing and Disbursing Officer
• Gratuity for central government employees
• CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021
• Last Pay Certificate
• Suspension
• Technical resignation
• Resignation from government service
• Dismissal and removal from service

External references

• eSampada portal, Directorate of Estates
• Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
• Department of Expenditure
• Indian Railways, Railway Board
• Ministry of Home Affairs
• Press Information Bureau: eAwas system in Central Armed Police Forces, 11 February 2026
• Income Tax Department

References

1. Fundamental Rules 45, 45-A, 45-B and 45-C, Department of Personnel and Training compilation of the Fundamental and Supplementary Rules, Part I.
2. Central Government General Pool Residential Accommodation Rules, 2017, notification G.S.R. 598(E) dated 16 June 2017, rules 8, 28, 29, 32, 35, 40, 43, 73, 74 and 77; Directorate of Estates OM No. 18011/2/2015-Pol.III dated 17 July 2026 (licence fee from 1 July 2026) and OM No. 12035/4/2015-Pol.II dated 7 August 2024 (non-family stations).
3. Department of Expenditure OM No. 2/4/2022-E.II(B) dated 30 December 2022, house rent allowance, paragraphs 4.1, 4.6 and 5.1, and OM No. 2/5/2017-E.II(B) dated 7 July 2017, rates of house rent allowance; Railway Board letter No. E(P&A)II/2024/HRA-2 dated 12 April 2024, reproducing paragraph 1706 of the Indian Railway Establishment Code Volume II.
4. Railway Board letter No. F(X)I-2002/11/2 dated 23 September 2026, revision of licence fee for railway residential accommodation from 1 July 2026; RBE 24/2026 (No. E(G) 2026/Awas Niti/QR/2, 18 March 2026), RBE 27/2026 (No. E(G) 2026/Awas Niti/QR/4, 23 March 2026) and RBE 29/2026 (No. E(G) 2026/Awas Niti/QR/5, 30 March 2026) on retention of railway accommodation.
5. Report of the 7th Central Pay Commission, 19 November 2015, paragraphs 8.7.17 to 8.7.27; Report of the Committee on Allowances, 27 April 2017, paragraph 4.5.3; Department of Expenditure Resolution No. 11-1/2016-IC dated 6 July 2017.
6. Scales of Accommodation for Defence Services 2022, Engineer-in-Chief’s Branch, 14 June 2022, paragraph 67.4; Ministry of Defence letter No. 1(1)/2014-D(Q&C) dated 1 July 2022, licence fee for defence civilians and service officers.
7. Ministry of Home Affairs OM No. II-27012/29/2018-PF-I dated 22 January 2019 and OM No. I-45024/72/2004-Org/PF-V dated 8 November 2019; answer to Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 400, 22 July 2026; Press Information Bureau release ID 2226445, 11 February 2026.
8. All India Services (Conditions of Service-Residuary Matters) Rules, 1960, rule 2; Allotment of Government Residences (General Pool) Rules, 1990 (Meghalaya), rules 3 and 4.
9. Allotment of Government Residences (IA&AD) Rules, 2021, Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, rule 10; Delegation of Financial Powers Rules, 2024, S.O. 1543(E) dated 26 March 2024, Annexure II condition (9).
10. Income-tax Act, 2025, Section 17(1)(a) and (b); Income-tax Rules, 2026, rule 15(2)(a) Table I and rule 15(2)(f); CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021, Rule 68.