Hostel Subsidy

The Hostel Subsidy is a reimbursement drawn by a central government employee towards the boarding and lodging of a child kept in the hostel of a residential educational institution located at least 50 km from the employee’s residence. The ceiling is Rs. 8,437.50 a month per child, and the amount actually paid is the lower of that ceiling and what the employee spent. It is governed by paragraph 2(c) of Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. A-27012/02/2017-Estt.(AL) dated 17 July 2018, which consolidated the scheme in supersession of all earlier orders with effect from 1 July 2017.

The distance test is the whole of the eligibility question, and it is frequently stated wrongly. Under the 6th Central Pay Commission scheme the subsidy turned on the child being kept away from the station at which the employee was posted or resided, and before that it turned on the employee having been transferred. Neither test survives. The order in force asks one question only: is the residential institution 50 km or more from the residence of the government servant.

The Hostel Subsidy is the boarder limb of the same scheme that pays Children Education Allowance to the parent of a day scholar, and the two differ in kind rather than in degree. Children Education Allowance is a flat Rs. 2,812.50 a month paid without reference to the fees actually charged. The Hostel Subsidy is a capped reimbursement, so the claim has to prove expenditure and the payment can fall below the ceiling. That single structural difference drives the evidence requirement, the rejection grounds and most of the disputes.

This article sets out the ceiling and the cap, the 50 km condition and where it came from, the two-child limit, concurrent claiming with the Children Education Allowance, the position of a Divyaang child, what the claim has to prove and where it goes, admissibility during suspension and after death or retirement, the tax treatment under the Income-tax Act, 2025, the history from the 6th Central Pay Commission onward, and when the ceiling next rises. It sits under the allowances hub.

The ceiling and the cap on actual expenditure

The Hostel Subsidy is Rs. 8,437.50 a month per child, or the actual boarding and lodging, whichever is lower. The base ceiling of Rs. 6,750 was fixed with effect from 1 July 2017 by paragraph 2(c) of the Office Memorandum of 17 July 2018, and it rose 25% to Rs. 8,437.50 with effect from 1 January 2024 under Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. A-27012/01/2023-Pers.Policy(Allowance) dated 25 April 2024, issued after dearness allowance reached 50% of basic pay by Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 1/1/2024-E.II(B) dated 12 March 2024.

The cap is what separates the subsidy from its companion. A hostel charging Rs. 6,000 a month for boarding and lodging produces a reimbursement of Rs. 6,000. One charging Rs. 12,000 produces Rs. 8,437.50 and the balance is borne by the employee. Nothing carries forward, and a month of lower expenditure cannot be set against a month of higher.

Paragraph 2(c) states the mechanic in terms. The expenditure on boarding and lodging, or the ceiling, whichever is lower, is what is paid to the employee. The 7th Central Pay Commission had recommended exactly that wording at paragraph 8.17.17 of its report, and the table in that paragraph shows the ceiling being derived as 4,500 multiplied by 1.5, the figure 4,500 being the 6th Central Pay Commission rate in force on 30 June 2017.

The corrigendum of 30 June 2026

For twenty-six months the operative Department of Personnel and Training order said the Hostel Subsidy was payable irrespective of actual expenses, contradicting the order it left standing. Paragraph 2(a) of the Office Memorandum of 25 April 2024, as originally issued, provided that Children Education Allowance was to be Rs. 2,812.50 a month and Hostel Subsidy Rs. 8,437.50 a month, both described as fixed and both payable “irrespective of actual expenses incurred by the Government employee”. That treated the subsidy as a flat sum. Paragraph 2(c) of the Office Memorandum of 17 July 2018, which the 2024 order expressly preserved, said the opposite.

The Department of Personnel and Training corrected it by corrigendum Office Memorandum No. A-27012/01/2023-Pers. Policy(AL) dated 30 June 2026, which substituted paragraph 2(a) so that the flat description now attaches to Children Education Allowance alone and the Hostel Subsidy reads as Rs. 8,437.50 a month or the actual expenditure incurred on boarding and lodging, whichever is lower. Paragraph 3 of the corrigendum leaves every other term of the orders of 17 July 2018 and 25 April 2024 unchanged.

This matters to anyone whose claim for an academic year between 2024 and 2026 was settled at the full ceiling on the strength of the superseded wording. The corrigendum carries no savings clause for such cases and no direction to reopen them.

The 50 km distance condition

Paragraph 2(i) of the Office Memorandum of 17 July 2018 makes the Hostel Subsidy “applicable only in respect of the child studying in a residential educational institution located at least 50 kilometers from the residence of the Government servant”. An institution nearer than 50 km does not attract the subsidy whatever the child’s circumstances, and the shortfall cannot be waived by the head of department or the accounts office.

Two things follow from the way the condition is drafted. The reference point is the residence, not the office and not the station of posting, so an employee who lives well outside the city of posting measures from home. And the condition says nothing about why the child is boarding, so transfer liability is irrelevant: an employee who will never be transferred draws the subsidy on the same terms as one who is transferred every three years.

The condition is older than the 7th Central Pay Commission and was not its invention. It was introduced under the 6th Central Pay Commission by Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 12011/07/2011-Estt.(AL) dated 31 May 2012, which replaced the station test then in force and stated in terms that the grant of hostel subsidy is not related to the transfer liability of the government servant. The 2018 consolidation carried the test forward unchanged.

No relaxation exists. No order softens the 50 km figure for a hill station, a remote posting, or a child already boarding when the employee is transferred. The National Federation of Indian Railwaymen has pressed the Railway Board to withdraw the condition and it has been raised at the National Council of the Joint Consultative Machinery, without result.

The two eldest surviving children

Paragraph 2(a) confines the Hostel Subsidy to the two eldest surviving children, the small-family norm that runs through central government service benefits. Two exceptions relax it, and both are narrower than they are usually described.

The first covers twins or a multiple birth, and it is tied to the second birth specifically. A family whose first birth produced one child and whose second produced twins has all three covered. A family whose first birth produced twins does not gain a third place by that route.

The second covers a child born of a failed sterilisation operation, and it is confined to the first instance of such failure. Paragraph 2(a) admits the subsidy for children born out of that first failure beyond the usual two-child norm.

Where both spouses are government servants, paragraph 2(g) permits only one of them to claim under Children Education Allowance and Hostel Subsidy. The original 7th Central Pay Commission order of 16 August 2017 had expressed that restriction for Children Education Allowance alone; the 2018 consolidation extended it to the Hostel Subsidy in terms.

Claiming the subsidy alongside Children Education Allowance

Paragraph 2(f) of the Office Memorandum of 17 July 2018 reads, in full: “The Hostel Subsidy and Children Education Allowance can be claimed concurrently.” The word “can” is underlined in the original. The sentence carries no qualification, and in particular it does not confine concurrent claiming to different children.

Across two children the position is settled and unremarkable. One child a day scholar drawing Children Education Allowance at Rs. 2,812.50 a month and the other boarding at a qualifying residential institution drawing the Hostel Subsidy against actual expenditure is the ordinary case, and both are paid within the common two-child ceiling. That reverses the 6th Central Pay Commission scheme under Office Memorandum No. 12011/03/2008-Estt.(Allowance) dated 2 September 2008, which barred the two being availed together.

For a single child the order is silent, and the silence favours the employee. The two payments answer different heads of expenditure. Children Education Allowance is a flat sum for schooling paid without reference to fees; the Hostel Subsidy reimburses boarding and lodging and nothing else. The application form prescribed by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India requires the claimant to mark the claim “CEA / HOSTEL SUBSIDY / BOTH”, which points the same way.

One point should be stated plainly because it is often asserted as settled and is not. No Office Memorandum in the 7th Central Pay Commission series provides for apportioning an academic year between the two heads where a child moves from day scholar to hostel mid-session. The only apportionment language anywhere in this material sits in the clarification of 11 November 2008 and concerns the part-year at the introduction of the 6th Central Pay Commission rates.

The Divyaang child and the limits of the double rate

The Hostel Subsidy is not doubled for a Divyaang child. Paragraph 2(d) provides that reimbursement of Children Education Allowance for Divyaang children is payable at double the normal rates of Children Education Allowance “prescribed above in clause (b)”. The doubling is tied word for word to clause (b), which is the Children Education Allowance clause. The Hostel Subsidy sits in clause (c) and is untouched. Paragraph 2(b) of the order of 25 April 2024 repeats the confinement when it states the doubled figure of Rs. 5,625 a month.

The confinement is a government implementation decision and it departs from the recommendation it implements. The 7th Central Pay Commission said at paragraph 9.6.6 of its report that for employees with differently abled children, Children Education Allowance and Hostel Subsidy is granted at double rate, and listed the same proposition at paragraph 9.6.9(iii). Paragraph 8.17.17 carried it too. The first implementing order, of 16 August 2017, said only that the allowance would be double for differently abled children, without confining that to Children Education Allowance. The confinement appears in the 2018 consolidation.

There is a further point of history. Under the 6th Central Pay Commission the hostel rate for a disabled child was in fact doubled, standing at Rs. 9,000 a month against the normal Rs. 4,500 following the enhancement of 28 April 2014. The doubling of the hostel limb was therefore withdrawn at the 7th Central Pay Commission transition rather than never having existed, which is why long-serving employees remember it differently.

What a parent of a Divyaang child should take from this is narrower than the headline suggests. The double Children Education Allowance of Rs. 5,625 a month is not forfeited by the child boarding. Paragraph 2(f) permits concurrent claiming, so the doubled allowance under paragraph 2(d) and the single-ceiling Hostel Subsidy under paragraph 2(c) are not alternatives. Separately, Office Memorandum No. A-27012/01/2022-Estt.(AL) dated 17 February 2023 pays double Children Education Allowance for education or special education at residence where a Divyaang child cannot physically attend school, on a teacher’s receipt with self-certification.

What the claim has to prove

Paragraph 2(c) requires a certificate from the head of the institution confirming that the child studied in the school, with the additional requirement that the certificate state the amount the employee spent towards lodging and boarding in the residential complex. The study certificate alone will not carry a Hostel Subsidy claim, because without the amount there is nothing against which to apply the cap.

Where that certificate cannot be obtained, paragraph 2(c) accepts a substitute, and the substitute is conjunctive rather than alternative. A self-attested copy of the report card together with original fee receipts or e-receipts is required, and those receipts must themselves indicate the expenditure on lodging and boarding. A receipt showing a single consolidated annual figure without separating boarding and lodging does not meet the requirement.

The order stops there. Nothing in the Office Memorandum of 17 July 2018 defines what boarding and lodging comprises, and nothing expressly excludes mess charges, laundry, a caution deposit or transport. The composition is left to the institution’s certificate, which is the practical reason claims are queried: two schools certifying the same fee structure differently will produce different reimbursements.

Day boarding is outside the scheme. The subsidy pays for residence in a hostel, and both routes to proof require the boarding and lodging figure, which day boarding does not generate. The Department of Personnel and Training answered the question flatly under the 6th Central Pay Commission scheme in its clarification of 11 November 2008, and nothing in the 2018 consolidation disturbs the position.

The relaxation granted during the pandemic shows how far the requirement bends when the department chooses to bend it. Office Memorandum No. A-27012/02/2017-Estt.(AL) dated 1 July 2021 permitted self-certification, or a printout of an e-mail or SMS carrying the result or the fee payment, for the academic years ending March 2020 and March 2021 alone, and directed that settled cases were not to be reopened.

Where and when the claim is made

The claim is made once in a financial year, after that financial year is complete, under paragraph 2(h). There is no monthly drawal and no advance. The period reckoned is the academic year, twelve months of a complete academic session, under paragraph 2(b) as applied by paragraph 2(c).

Office Memorandum No. A-27012/01/2022-Estt.(AL) dated 25 August 2023 fixed where the claim goes. It is submitted at the office where the employee is serving or last served, and where e-HRMS is operational the claim is to be made through e-HRMS only. An employee who has moved office during the year files at the current office, not the one that held the charge when the expenditure was incurred.

Admissibility during suspension, leave, death and cessation of service

Paragraph 2(t) admits the Hostel Subsidy during duty, under suspension, and on leave including extraordinary leave, but not for any period treated as dies non. Suspension does not interrupt the entitlement, which distinguishes it from several allowances that abate.

On death in service, paragraph 2(k) keeps the subsidy admissible for the children, subject to a condition on the surviving spouse. It is available provided the surviving spouse is not employed by the Central Government, a State Government, an autonomous body, a public sector undertaking, or a semi-government organisation such as a municipality or port trust authority, or any other organisation partly or fully funded by either government. Where that condition is met it is paid by the office in which the deceased was working, for as long as the employee would have drawn it.

On retirement, discharge, dismissal or removal, paragraph 2(l) continues it to the end of the academic year in which service ceases, again paid by the office where the government servant worked. A retirement in October therefore carries the subsidy through to the close of that academic session rather than stopping on the date of superannuation.

Classes, ages and recognised institutions

The schooling covered is the same as for Children Education Allowance, and it is set by paragraph 2(p) as substituted by Office Memorandum No. A-27012/01/2023-Pers. Policy(Allowance) dated 14 March 2024 with effect from the academic year 2023-24. The substituted paragraph covers children studying from three classes before Class 1 to Class 12, “irrespective of nomenclature of class”, and the first two years of a diploma or certificate course at a polytechnic, an Industrial Training Institute or an engineering college taken after passing Class 10, provided no allowance was drawn for that child for Classes 11 and 12.

The phrase about nomenclature is new in 2024 and it disposes of the recurring dispute over whether nursery, lower kindergarten, upper kindergarten, pre-primary or preparatory is the covered class. The naming does not matter; the position of the class relative to Class 1 does. Note that paragraph 2(n), which still speaks of classes from nursery to twelfth, was never reconciled with the substituted paragraph.

Age limits run alongside. Paragraph 2(m) sets 20 years, or the child passing Class 12, whichever comes first, with 22 years for a Divyaang child, and it ends with the statement that there shall be no minimum age.

Recognition is what settles marginal institutions. Paragraph 2(q) defines a recognised school or institution, for nursery, primary and middle level institutions not affiliated to a board, as a government school or any educational institution, whether aided or not, recognised by the Central Government, a State Government, a Union Territory Administration, a university, or a recognised educational authority having jurisdiction over the area. Paragraph 2(j) adds that there is no nexus with the child’s performance, so failing a class does not stop the claim, though readmission to the same class in a different school stops Children Education Allowance.

Tax treatment

The Hostel Subsidy is salary and is taxable, and the exemption available against it is Rs. 300 a month per child for up to two children in the old regime only. Serial 6 of the Table to Rule 2BB(2) of the Income-tax Rules, 1962 exempts “any allowance granted to an employee to meet the hostel expenditure on his child” throughout India to the extent of “Rs. 300 per month per child up to a maximum of two children”. Serial 5 of the same Table carries the education counterpart at Rs. 100 a month per child. Both rest on Section 10(14)(ii) of the repealed Income-tax Act, 1961, which governs the return for the financial year 2025-26 filed during 2026.

For tax year 2026-27 the entry moves. The Income-tax Act, 2025 came into force on 1 April 2026 under Section 1(3), and the successor provision is serial 13 of the Table to Schedule III, 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. Serial 13 carries no rupee figure on its face, exempting an allowance granted to meet personal expenses at the place where the assessee ordinarily resides “to the extent as may be prescribed”, exactly as Section 10(14)(ii) did. Section 3(1) of the 2025 Act replaces “previous year” and “assessment year” with “tax year”, defined as the twelve-month period of the financial year commencing on 1 April.

The exemption does not survive the new tax regime. Section 202(2)(a)(ii) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 computes total income under the default regime without any exemption or deduction under Schedule III serials 12 or 13, other than those prescribed for the purpose, and the hostel entry is not among the survivors. The equivalent under the 1961 Act was Rule 2BB(3), inserted by Notification No. 38/2020, G.S.R. 415(E), dated 26 June 2020 and substituted by Notification No. 43/2023, G.S.R. 452(E), dated 21 June 2023, which retained serial 11 of the Table alone. A salaried employee may still choose the old regime for tax year 2026-27, exercising the option under Section 202(4)(b) along with the return of income furnished under Section 263(1).

Calling the payment a reimbursement does not improve its treatment. Rule 2BB(2) prescribes the allowances “by whatever name called”, and serial 6 is drafted functionally as an allowance to meet the hostel expenditure on a child, which is what the Hostel Subsidy is whatever the Department of Personnel and Training calls it. The alternative characterisation is worse: a payment discharging a personal obligation of the employee would be taxed as a perquisite, with no exemption at all.

The scale of the relief is worth stating against the amount. Rs. 300 a month covers about one twenty-eighth of a Rs. 8,437.50 ceiling. For two children the annual exemption is Rs. 7,200 against Rs. 2,02,500 of subsidy, and in the new regime it is nil. The drawing and disbursing officer adds the subsidy to gross salary for deduction at source under Section 392 of the Income-tax Act, 2025, the successor to Section 192 of the 1961 Act, which requires deduction at the average rate on the estimated income under the head Salaries for the year. The standard deduction under Section 19(1), Table serial 2 is Rs. 75,000 where income is computed under Section 202(1) and Rs. 50,000 otherwise, which is the figure against which the Rs. 7,200 should be judged. The broader picture is in income tax for government employees and in deductions allowed in the new tax regime.

From the 6th Central Pay Commission to the 7th

The Hostel Subsidy has been reshaped twice, and the sequence explains most of the misconceptions about it.

The 6th Central Pay Commission made the largest single move. The 7th Central Pay Commission recorded at paragraph 8.17.15 of its report that effectively a tenfold rise had been given by the 6th, which is the step from Rs. 300 to Rs. 3,000 a month, implemented by Office Memorandum No. 12011/03/2008-Estt.(Allowance) dated 2 September 2008 with effect from 1 September 2008. That order also introduced the 25% escalator and barred concurrent claiming with Children Education Allowance.

Two enhancements followed under the same escalator, the second by Office Memorandum No. A-27012/1/2014-Estt.(Allowance) dated 28 April 2014 taking the ceiling to Rs. 4,500 with effect from 1 January 2014. That was the rate in force on 30 June 2017.

The 7th Central Pay Commission then recommended Rs. 6,750, derived at paragraph 8.17.17 as 4,500 multiplied by 1.5 and described expressly as a ceiling. The government accepted the allowances recommendations by Department of Expenditure Resolution No. 11-1/2016-IC dated 6 July 2017 with effect from 1 July 2017, allowances having been frozen at pre-revised rates until then by paragraph 7 of Resolution No. 1-2/2016-IC dated 25 July 2016. The Commission declined to extend the scheme beyond Class 12, recording at paragraph 8.17.17 that because of the greatly varying nature of studies at the graduate level and beyond, extension of the scope of the allowance beyond Class 12 could not be accepted.

Implementation came in two stages, which is why departmental circulars cite two orders. Office Memorandum No. A-27012/02/2017-Estt.(AL) dated 16 August 2017 fixed the new ceiling and the reimbursement mechanic in supersession of the order of 28 April 2014. Queries followed, particularly about which 6th Central Pay Commission instructions survived and about the difficulty of obtaining the head of institution’s certificate, and the Office Memorandum of 17 July 2018 answered them by replacing roughly a decade of clarifications with twenty lettered clauses, from 2(a) to 2(t), in supersession of all earlier orders on the subject.

When the ceiling next rises

The next enhancement is due when dearness allowance reaches 100% of basic pay. Paragraph 2(e) provides that the rates and ceilings are automatically raised 25% every time dearness allowance on the revised pay structure goes up by 50%, and the Department of Personnel and Training has applied that as a further 50 percentage points on the 7th Central Pay Commission base, not as a 50% relative increase.

Only one crossing has occurred. Dearness allowance reached 50% on 1 January 2024 under Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 1/1/2024-E.II(B) dated 12 March 2024, producing the order of 25 April 2024. Dearness allowance stands at 60% from 1 January 2026 under Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 1/1(i)/2026-E.II(B) dated 22 April 2026, which is short of the next threshold, so the ceiling is unchanged. The trajectory is tracked in expected DA.

The increment is 25% of the base rather than 25% compounded on the current figure, and the 6th Central Pay Commission cycle proves it. The Commission’s own table records Children Education Allowance rising from a Rs. 1,000 base to a then-current Rs. 1,500, and paragraph 8.17.16 states that it had gone up by 50% from its 2008 level across two triggers. Two compounded steps of 25% would have produced 56.25%. Applied to the Rs. 6,750 base, one trigger gives 6,750 plus 1,687.50, which is the Rs. 8,437.50 now in payment, and two triggers would give 6,750 plus 3,375, or Rs. 10,125 a month.

That Rs. 10,125 is an arithmetical consequence of paragraph 2(e) and not an order. No order has been issued and none is due until the 100% mark is reached. The figure may never issue at all, because a revised pay structure resets the dearness allowance counter to zero, as it did in 2016.

The 8th Central Pay Commission

No 8th Central Pay Commission figure for the Hostel Subsidy exists, and any circulating figure is unofficial. The 8th Central Pay Commission was constituted by Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure Resolution F. No. 01-01/2025-E.III(A) dated 3 November 2025, with Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai as chairperson. Paragraph 5 of the Resolution allows 18 months from constitution to report, which runs to 3 May 2027, and permits interim reports. The Resolution fixes no fitment factor, no minimum pay, no revised pay matrix and no effective date.

The 7th Central Pay Commission precedent suggests the allowance revision will lag any pay revision. Allowances were frozen at pre-revised rates by Resolution No. 1-2/2016-IC dated 25 July 2016 and revised rates took effect only from 1 July 2017 under Resolution No. 11-1/2016-IC dated 6 July 2017, a gap of 18 months, and no arrears were paid for it.

Adoption by the Railways and the defence services

The Railway Board adopts each Department of Personnel and Training order on the Hostel Subsidy mutatis mutandis, and the rate on the Railways is identical. The 7th Central Pay Commission scheme reached the Railways through letter No. E(W)2017/ED-2/3 dated 13 August 2018, carrying RBE No. 114/2018, and the enhancement of 25 April 2024 through letter No. 2024/E(W)/ED-2/2 dated 7 May 2024, carrying RBE No. 40/2024. The corrigendum of 30 June 2026 was circulated by letter No. 2026/E(W)/08/12 dated 23 July 2026. Master Circular No. 17, issued by letter No. E(W)2019/ED-2/1 dated 22 August 2019, is the consolidated Railway reference.

Defence civilians draw the subsidy under the Department of Personnel and Training order directly. For the armed forces the 50 km test was applied by Ministry of Defence letter No. PC-1(66)/2008/D(Pay/Services) dated 5 April 2013, which made the order of 31 May 2012 applicable mutatis mutandis to service personnel in place of the earlier PIN code test.

One instrument should not be confused with the Hostel Subsidy. The educational concession for the children of defence personnel killed, missing or disabled in action, recommended at paragraphs 8.17.42 to 8.17.45 of the 7th Central Pay Commission report, reimburses tuition fees and hostel charges in full within a combined ceiling of Rs. 10,000 a month, and adds fixed annual amounts for books and stationery, uniform and clothing. Paragraph 8.17.44 extended it to similarly placed personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces, the Indian Coast Guard, the Railway Protection Force and Union Territory police forces. It is a different benefit on different terms, and it is not capped at Rs. 8,437.50.

For an officer of the All India Services the applicable rate follows the government under which the officer serves, and an officer on central deputation draws the central rate under the Department of Personnel and Training order. An employee of an autonomous body draws the subsidy only where that body has adopted the scheme by its own order, the Department of Personnel and Training order having no force of its own outside central government service.

Related Articles

• Children Education Allowance
• Allowances for central government employees
• 7th Central Pay Commission
• 6th Central Pay Commission
• 8th Central Pay Commission
• Dearness allowance
• Expected DA
• Dearness relief
• Pay matrix
• Basic pay
• House-rent allowance
• City classification for HRA
• Transport allowance
• Travelling allowance
• Leave travel concession
• Special Allowance for Child Care for Women with Disabilities
• Child care leave
• CCS (Leave) Rules
• Extraordinary leave
• Leave encashment
• Income-tax Act, 2025
• Income tax for government employees
• New tax regime
• Old tax regime
• Deductions allowed in the new tax regime
• Standard deduction
• Form 16
• Department of Personnel and Training
• Department of Expenditure
• Deputation to the central government
• All India Services
• Superannuation

External references

• Department of Personnel and Training
• DoPT establishment orders
• Department of Expenditure
• Report of the Seventh Central Pay Commission
• Income Tax Department
• Comptroller and Auditor General of India
• Ministry of Railways

References

1. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. A-27012/02/2017-Estt.(AL) dated 17 July 2018, consolidated instructions on Children Education Allowance and Hostel Subsidy under the 7th Central Pay Commission, in supersession of all earlier orders, clauses 2(a) to 2(t), with effect from 1 July 2017 (ceiling of Rs. 6,750 a month and the whichever-is-lower rule at 2(c), the double rate confined to Children Education Allowance at 2(d), the 25% escalator at 2(e), concurrent claiming at 2(f), the 50 km condition at 2(i), death in service at 2(k), cessation of service at 2(l), and admissibility during suspension and leave at 2(t)).
2. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. A-27012/02/2017-Estt.(AL) dated 16 August 2017, the first order implementing the 7th Central Pay Commission recommendation, in supersession of the Office Memorandum dated 28 April 2014.
3. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. A-27012/01/2023-Pers.Policy(Allowance) dated 25 April 2024, enhancing Children Education Allowance and Hostel Subsidy by 25% from 1 January 2024, consequent on Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 1/1/2024-E.II(B) dated 12 March 2024 fixing dearness allowance at 50%.
4. Department of Personnel and Training, corrigendum Office Memorandum No. A-27012/01/2023-Pers. Policy(AL) dated 30 June 2026, substituting paragraph 2(a) of the Office Memorandum dated 25 April 2024 to restore the actual expenditure cap on the Hostel Subsidy.
5. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. A-27012/01/2023-Pers. Policy(Allowance) dated 14 March 2024, substituting paragraph 2(p) and granting the National Education Policy 2020 relaxation with effect from the academic year 2023-24; Office Memorandum No. A-27012/01/2022-Estt.(AL) dated 25 August 2023 on submission of claims through e-HRMS; and Office Memorandum No. A-27012/02/2017-Estt.(AL) dated 1 July 2021 relaxing the certificate requirement for the academic years ending March 2020 and March 2021.
6. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. 12011/03/2008-Estt.(Allowance) dated 2 September 2008 introducing the 6th Central Pay Commission scheme with effect from 1 September 2008, and the clarification of 11 November 2008; Office Memorandum No. 12011/08/2010-Estt.(AL) dated 30 December 2010 demarcating “station” by the first three digits of the PIN code; Office Memorandum No. 12011/07/2011-Estt.(AL) dated 31 May 2012 introducing the 50 km test and severing the link with transfer liability; and Office Memorandum No. A-27012/1/2014-Estt.(Allowance) dated 28 April 2014 raising the ceiling to Rs. 4,500 with effect from 1 January 2014.
7. Report of the Seventh Central Pay Commission, November 2015, paragraphs 8.17.15 to 8.17.17 (the tenfold 6th Central Pay Commission rise, the ceiling of Rs. 6,750, the reimbursement mechanic and the refusal to extend beyond Class 12), paragraphs 8.17.42 to 8.17.45 (educational concession for children of defence personnel killed, missing or disabled in action) and paragraphs 9.6.6 and 9.6.9(iii) (the double rate recommended for both Children Education Allowance and Hostel Subsidy).
8. Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure, Resolution No. 11-1/2016-IC dated 6 July 2017 accepting the 7th Central Pay Commission recommendations on allowances with effect from 1 July 2017, read with paragraph 7 of Resolution No. 1-2/2016-IC dated 25 July 2016 freezing allowances at pre-revised rates; and Resolution F. No. 01-01/2025-E.III(A) dated 3 November 2025 constituting the 8th Central Pay Commission.
9. Income-tax Act, 2025 (Act No. 30 of 2025), in force from 1 April 2026 under Section 1(3), Sections 3(1), 19(1), 202 and 392 and Schedule III serial 13; and 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.
10. Income-tax Act, 1961, Section 10(14)(ii), and Income-tax Rules, 1962, Rule 2BB(2) Table serials 5 and 6 and Rule 2BB(3) as substituted by Central Board of Direct Taxes Notification No. 43/2023, G.S.R. 452(E), dated 21 June 2023, governing the return for the financial year 2025-26.
11. Ministry of Railways (Railway Board), letter No. E(W)2017/ED-2/3 dated 13 August 2018 (RBE No. 114/2018), letter No. 2024/E(W)/ED-2/2 dated 7 May 2024 (RBE No. 40/2024), Master Circular No. 17 issued by letter No. E(W)2019/ED-2/1 dated 22 August 2019, and letter No. 2026/E(W)/08/12 dated 23 July 2026; and Ministry of Defence letter No. PC-1(66)/2008/D(Pay/Services) dated 5 April 2013.