Interim relief

Interim relief is a provisional pay rise paid while a pay commission sits, absorbed into revised pay later. Rates from 1957 to 1996, and the 8th CPC position.

Updated 7 September 2026

Interim relief is an ad hoc, provisional pay increase granted to central government employees, and separately to pensioners, while a Central Pay Commission is still deliberating. It is not kept as an extra when the award arrives: it is absorbed into the revised pay and reduces the arrears due. Paragraph 138.22 of the Fifth Central Pay Commission report dates the practice to 1957 and records every instalment sanctioned since.

Four commissions were preceded by it and three were not. Interim relief ran before the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Central Pay Commissions, at rates from Rs. 5 a month in 1957 to 10% of basic pay in 1996. It was not sanctioned before the 6th or the 7th, and none has been announced before the 8th Central Pay Commission. Whether to grant it is a decision for the government each cycle, and the split record is the reason the demand recurs.

The term is routinely confused with three other things: dearness allowance, a dearness-allowance merger, and the fitment factor. It is also conflated with an interim report, which is a commission reporting early rather than the government paying money. Each of those distinctions is set out below with the order that establishes it.

This article covers what interim relief is and how it was classified, the four confusions worth clearing, the rate and date of every instalment from 1957 to 1996, the separate and lower rates paid to pensioners, how it was sanctioned, what it counted for while it ran, how it was absorbed under Rule 7(1)(A) of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 1997, its tax treatment, and where the 8th CPC demand stands.

What interim relief is

Interim relief is a stop-gap payment sanctioned by the government while a pay commission works, because a commission takes two to three years to report and the revised scales are then given retrospective effect. Three features define it.

It is provisional. The Staff Side of the Joint Consultative Machinery described it to the 7th Central Pay Commission as a provisional payment in view of the market situation, and that is the whole of its purpose: partial relief in advance of an award whose date is unknown.

It is classified as neither pay nor allowance nor wage. The order sanctioning Rs. 100 a month from 16 September 1993 directed that the amount was not to be termed pay, allowance or wages, and that it would accordingly not count for any service benefit. That classification is what keeps interim relief out of the base for dearness allowance, house rent allowance, pension and gratuity while it runs.

It is discretionary. Nothing in the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules or in any standing instruction creates a right to interim relief. It arrives, when it arrives, through a government order that follows either a commission’s own interim recommendation or a direct decision, and it has been withheld in the two most recent completed cycles.

Interim relief compared with dearness allowance, a merger and the fitment factor

Interim relief differs from dearness allowance in that dearness allowance is permanent and rule-based, while interim relief is one-off and discretionary. Dearness allowance is revised twice a year against the twelve-month average of the All-India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers, and stands at 60% of basic pay from 1 January 2026 under Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 1/1(i)/2026-E.II(B) dated 22 April 2026. It runs in the normal course while a commission deliberates. Interim relief sits on top of it and disappears at fixation.

Interim relief differs from a dearness-allowance merger in the direction of the money. A merger converts dearness allowance already in payment into pay, so the exchequer pays nothing new on the day it is granted but pays more later, because the merged amount counts for pension and allowances. Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum F. No. 105/1/2004-IC dated 1 March 2004 merged dearness allowance equal to 50% of basic pay as dearness pay with effect from 1 April 2004, counted as pay for all purposes barring travelling allowance, leave travel concession and entitlement to government housing. Interim relief is a fresh amount that counts for nothing. The two are the standard pair of demands ahead of a commission, and they are not interchangeable.

Interim relief differs from the fitment factor in permanence. The fitment factor, 2.57 in the 7th CPC round, is the multiplier that fixes the new basic pay and permanently absorbs the accumulated dearness allowance. Interim relief is the temporary bridge paid before fitment happens and does not survive it as a distinct amount.

Interim relief compared with an interim report

An interim report is a commission recommending early; interim relief is the government sanctioning money. The confusion is understandable, because in the 5th CPC cycle the second and third instalments both followed interim recommendations by the Commission, but the two powers sit in different hands.

Paragraph 5 of Department of Expenditure Resolution F. No. 01-01/2025-E.III(A) dated 3 November 2025 gives the 8th Central Pay Commission 18 months to report and permits it to send interim reports on any matter as recommendations are finalised. Paragraph 5 of Resolution No. 1/1/2013-E.III(A) dated 28 February 2014 carried the same power for the 7th Central Pay Commission, which used it for nothing resembling interim relief. The power is to report, not to pay. No interim report has issued from the 8th Central Pay Commission, and an interim report on interim relief would still leave the sanction to the government.

The record from 1957 to 1996

Paragraph 138.22 of the Fifth Central Pay Commission report is the single primary source that carries the whole sequence, because the Commission set out the history before recommending interim relief for pensioners. The rates and dates are these.

Commission	Instalments	Rate	Effective from
2nd CPC	One	Rs. 5 a month, basic pay up to Rs. 250	1 July 1957
3rd CPC	Three	Rs. 29 to Rs. 70 across the three, basic pay up to Rs. 1,250	1 March 1970, 1 October 1971, 1 August 1972
4th CPC	Two	Rs. 50 to Rs. 100 a month; then 10% of basic pay, minimum Rs. 50	1 June 1983, 1 March 1985
5th CPC	Three	Rs. 100 a month; then 10% of basic pay, minimum Rs. 100, twice	16 September 1993, 1 April 1995, 1 April 1996
6th CPC	None	Not sanctioned	Not applicable
7th CPC	None	Not sanctioned	Not applicable
8th CPC	None to date	Not sanctioned	Not applicable

Two patterns show in that table. The rate moved from a flat rupee figure tied to a pay ceiling to a percentage of basic pay with a floor, which is the same shift dearness allowance made over the same decades. And the number of instalments tracks how long the commission took: the 3rd and 5th Commissions each drew three, and both sat for roughly three years.

The 2nd Central Pay Commission recommended Rs. 5 a month with effect from 1 July 1957 to all employees drawing basic pay not exceeding Rs. 250 a month. It is the earliest instance and the one later commissions cite as the precedent.

The 3rd Central Pay Commission cycle carried three instalments, from 1 March 1970, 1 October 1971 and 1 August 1972, with the amounts across all three ranging between Rs. 29 and Rs. 70 and payment restricted to employees drawing basic pay not exceeding Rs. 1,250. Accounts of interim relief that jump from 1957 to 1983 miss this cycle entirely.

The 4th Central Pay Commission cycle carried two. The government sanctioned a first instalment ranging between Rs. 50 and Rs. 100 a month with effect from 1 June 1983, before the Commission was constituted, and a second instalment equal to 10% of basic pay subject to a minimum of Rs. 50 a month with effect from 1 March 1985. Both merged into the new scales when the 4th CPC recommendations took effect from 1 January 1986.

The 5th Central Pay Commission cycle is the richest instance and the source of most of what is written about interim relief today. Central government employees were sanctioned Rs. 100 a month at a uniform rate with effect from 16 September 1993, before the Commission was constituted by Resolution No. 5(12)/E.III/93 dated 9 April 1994. On the Commission’s interim recommendation, a second instalment equal to 10% of basic pay subject to a minimum of Rs. 100 was sanctioned with effect from 1 April 1995, by Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 7(51)-E.III/95 dated 14 July 1995. A third instalment on the same terms followed with effect from 1 April 1996, again on the Commission’s recommendation. The Commission forwarded copies of its interim reports granting interim relief to the Chief Justice of India and the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, and both accepted and implemented them for their own establishments.

Interim relief for pensioners was separate and lower

Pensioners did not receive the same instalments as serving employees, and the common statement that they received parallel instalments is wrong on both rate and date. Paragraph 138.23 of the Fifth Central Pay Commission report is explicit: interim relief for pensioners was recommended for the first time in October 1994, at a uniform rate of Rs. 50 a month, in the light of the Rs. 100 a month that serving employees had been drawing since 16 September 1993.

A further instalment equal to 10% of basic pension or family pension, subject to a minimum of Rs. 50 a month, was recommended on the same analogy. The government granted pensioners the first and second instalments together, with effect from 1 April 1995, so pensioners drew nothing for the eighteen months during which serving employees drew Rs. 100 a month. The third instalment, equal to 10% of basic pension subject to a minimum of Rs. 100 a month, followed the Commission’s Third Interim Report.

For pensioners the absorption worked the same way as for employees. The consolidated pension from 1 January 1996 was built from basic pension, dearness relief as on that date, Interim Reliefs I and II, and a fitment weightage, which the Commission put at 20% and the government raised to 40%. Office Memorandum No. 45/86/97-P&PW(A) carried that consolidation, and it is the ancestor of every later revision of pension exercise.

How interim relief is sanctioned

Interim relief reaches employees through a government order, and the route to that order has changed across commissions. Two mechanisms account for every instance since 1957.

The first is a direct government decision, with no commission involved. The instalments from 16 September 1993 and 1 June 1983 were both sanctioned before the relevant commission existed, which is why they cannot be attributed to any commission’s recommendation.

The second is a commission’s interim recommendation, which the government then accepts and implements by order. The 5th CPC’s second and third instalments took that route. So did its recommendations for pensioners, made in October 1994 and in the Third Interim Report.

The terms of reference decide whether the question reaches the commission at all. Item G of the terms of reference of the 6th Central Pay Commission, as substituted by Ministry of Finance Resolution No. 5/2/2006-E.III(A) dated 7 December 2006, required it to examine the desirability and the need to sanction any interim relief until its recommendations were made and accepted by the government. That clause has no counterpart in the terms of reference of the 7th Central Pay Commission or the 8th, both of which are silent on interim relief and give only the general power to send interim reports.

What interim relief counted for while it ran

Interim relief did not count as pay for service benefits, so it did not enlarge dearness allowance, house rent allowance, transport allowance, pension or gratuity while it was being drawn. That follows directly from the direction, carried in the sanctioning order of the first 5th CPC instalment, that the amount was not to be termed pay, allowance or wages and would not count for any service benefit.

Entitlement during leave and suspension needed a separate clarification. Office Memorandum No. F. 7(13)-E.III/96 dated 6 May 1996, issued by the Department of Expenditure with reference to the sanctioning order of 14 July 1995, settled two points. During earned leave, half pay leave or study leave, interim relief at 10% subject to a minimum of Rs. 100 was payable on the full pay or on the half pay, according to the leave salary the employee was entitled to. No interim relief was admissible during extraordinary leave, where no leave salary is drawn at all.

Coverage also had to be extended category by category. Interim relief orders applied to central government employees on regular establishment, and Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 49014/2/93-Estt.(C) dated 2 August 1995 was needed to extend the 1 April 1995 instalment to casual labourers with temporary status. Casual employees on daily wages not linked to the minimum of a pay scale, and part-time casual and contingent employees, remained outside it.

How interim relief is absorbed at fixation

Interim relief is absorbed into the revised pay through the fixation formula, not paid out separately when the award lands. Rule 7(1)(A) of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 1997, notified as G.S.R. 569(E) dated 30 September 1997 and deemed to have come into force from 1 January 1996, defines existing emoluments for an employee in an existing scale as three things added together: basic pay in the existing scale, the dearness allowance appropriate to that basic pay admissible at index average 1510 with 1960 as 100, and the amounts of the first and second instalments of interim relief admissible on that basic pay. An amount equal to 40% of basic pay in the existing scale is then added, and pay is fixed in the revised scale at the stage next above the total.

The third instalment does not appear in that formula, and the reason is arithmetic rather than policy. The revised scales took effect from 1 January 1996 and the third instalment ran from 1 April 1996, so an employee who moved to the revised scales on the effective date drew revised pay for the period the third instalment covered and never held both. Only the first two instalments were part of what was actually drawn on 1 January 1996, which is what existing emoluments measure. Accounts stating that all three instalments entered the fitment base are wrong on this point.

The arrears consequence follows from the same logic. Because the revised scales take retrospective effect, arrears are the revised entitlement minus what the employee actually drew, and the interim relief already paid forms part of what was drawn. In the 5th CPC round the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 1997 were notified against an effective date twenty-one months earlier, so the arrears were substantial: they were paid in cash, in one instalment where the amount was below Rs. 5,000 and in two where it exceeded that, with the first instalment restricted to Rs. 5,000 plus half the balance.

Tax treatment

Interim relief is taxable as salary in the year of receipt, in full, under both the old tax regime and the new tax regime. The direction that it is not to be termed pay, allowance or wages fixes its treatment for service benefits, not for income tax: it is a receipt from the employer in respect of employment and is charged as salary like dearness allowance.

The relief available on pay commission arrears does not usually help here, because interim relief is paid month by month as it accrues. Bunching relief exists for income of an earlier year received in a later one, and interim relief is received in the year it relates to. The tax problem in a pay-commission cycle sits with the arrears paid after implementation, not with the interim relief paid before it.

Why the 6th and 7th Commissions produced none

The 6th Central Pay Commission had the question before it and made no recommendation on it. Its terms of reference expressly required it to examine the desirability and need for interim relief, and its report of March 2008 does not deal with the subject beyond reproducing that clause. No interim relief was sanctioned in that cycle. What was granted instead, and two and a half years before the Commission was constituted, was the merger of dearness allowance equal to 50% of basic pay as dearness pay from 1 April 2004.

The Commission then closed the door on repeating that merger. Paragraph 4.1.18 of its report reasoned that converting dearness allowance into dearness pay should invariably be accompanied by a simultaneous revision of the base index, which the 2004 order did not carry out, and that conversion was unnecessary in the structure it was recommending, where increments run as a percentage of pay in the pay band and grade pay and all allowances are revised periodically against the price index. It therefore did not recommend merger of dearness allowance with basic pay at any stage.

The 7th Central Pay Commission never had the question in its terms of reference. Resolution No. 1/1/2013-E.III(A) dated 28 February 2014 contains no interim relief clause, and the report submitted on 19 November 2015 does not deal with interim relief anywhere. The Staff Side of the Joint Consultative Machinery pressed both interim relief and a dearness-allowance merger on the Commission through 2014 and 2015, and neither was sanctioned. The accumulated dearness allowance, which reached 125% by 1 January 2016, was absorbed instead through the fitment factor of 2.57 under the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016.

The 8th CPC position

No interim relief has been granted or promised ahead of the 8th Central Pay Commission. Department of Expenditure Resolution F. No. 01-01/2025-E.III(A) dated 3 November 2025 constituted the Commission with Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai as chairperson and gave it 18 months to report, a window that expires on 3 May 2027. Its terms of reference do not provide for interim relief.

The nearest thing to a government position on the linked demand is a refusal. Answering Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 212 on 1 December 2025, the Government stated that there is no proposal to merge dearness allowance with basic pay. A merger is the mechanism most often proposed as a bridge until the award, so a refusal on the merger is the closest formal answer available on the interim-relief question.

The demands are real and the numbers attached to them are not. The Staff Side of the National Council of the Joint Consultative Machinery and the Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers have sought interim relief and a merger of 50% of dearness allowance into basic pay pending the award. Figures circulating in the press, including a specific percentage of interim relief, are demands or estimates, not sanctioned amounts. Until the Commission reports and revised rules are notified, the 7th CPC structure remains in force and nothing has been added to it. The 7th versus 8th Pay Commission comparison sets out what is known and what is only expected.

Common confusions

Interim relief is not a dearness-allowance hike. Dearness allowance is a standing formula revised every six months, at 60% of basic pay from 1 January 2026; interim relief is a discretionary, commission-linked grant paid on top of it.
Interim relief is not a dearness-allowance merger. A merger converts existing dearness allowance into pay and counts for pension; interim relief is a new ad hoc amount that counts for nothing.
Interim relief is not the fitment benefit. Fitment is the permanent multiplier that fixes revised pay; interim relief is the temporary bridge before it and does not survive it.
Interim relief is not an interim report. Paragraph 5 of the constituting resolution lets a commission report early; only the government can sanction money.
Interim relief was not granted only before the 2nd, 4th and 5th Commissions. The 3rd Central Pay Commission cycle carried three instalments, from 1 March 1970, 1 October 1971 and 1 August 1972.
Pensioners did not receive parallel instalments. Their first instalment was Rs. 50 a month, not Rs. 100, and it reached them only from 1 April 1995.
All three 5th CPC instalments were not counted in the 1996 fixation. Rule 7(1)(A) of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 1997 counts the first and second only.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is interim relief?

Interim relief is an ad hoc, provisional pay increase granted to central government employees while a pay commission is still deliberating, to give partial relief before the final award. When the revised pay is fixed, interim relief is absorbed into the new pay and reduces the arrears due. The first instalment orders of the 5th Central Pay Commission cycle directed that it was not to be termed pay, allowance or wages.

Which pay commissions granted interim relief?

Interim relief was granted before the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Central Pay Commissions. Paragraph 138.22 of the Fifth Central Pay Commission report records Rs. 5 a month from 1 July 1957, three instalments from 1 March 1970, 1 October 1971 and 1 August 1972, two instalments from 1 June 1983 and 1 March 1985, and three from 16 September 1993, 1 April 1995 and 1 April 1996. None was granted before the 6th or 7th Commissions, and none has been announced before the 8th.

Is interim relief the same as dearness allowance?

No. Dearness allowance is a permanent, twice-yearly component that neutralises inflation under a standing formula, and stands at 60% of basic pay from 1 January 2026. Interim relief is a one-off, discretionary measure tied to a pay-commission cycle, paid on top of dearness allowance and later absorbed into the revised pay.

What is the difference between interim relief and a dearness-allowance merger?

Interim relief is a fresh ad hoc amount paid on top of existing pay. A dearness-allowance merger converts a slice of dearness allowance already being paid into pay itself, as Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum F. No. 105/1/2004-IC dated 1 March 2004 did when it merged 50% of basic pay as dearness pay from 1 April 2004. A merger costs the exchequer less on the day it is granted and more later, because the merged amount counts for pension and most allowances.

What is the difference between interim relief and an interim report?

An interim report is a commission reporting early on a subject; interim relief is the government sanctioning money. Paragraph 5 of Department of Expenditure Resolution F. No. 01-01/2025-E.III(A) dated 3 November 2025 lets the 8th Central Pay Commission send interim reports on any matter, which is a power to recommend, not a power to pay. The two were linked in the 5th CPC cycle only because the second and third instalments followed the Commission’s own interim recommendations.

Did the 7th CPC grant interim relief?

No. The terms of reference in Department of Expenditure Resolution No. 1/1/2013-E.III(A) dated 28 February 2014 contain no interim relief clause, and the report of 19 November 2015 does not deal with interim relief anywhere. The accumulated dearness allowance, which had reached 125% by 1 January 2016, was absorbed through the fitment factor of 2.57 instead.

What happens to interim relief when the pay commission reports?

It is absorbed into the revised pay and reduces the arrears due. Rule 7(1)(A) of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 1997 added the amounts of the first and second instalments of interim relief to basic pay and dearness allowance to make up existing emoluments, then added 40% of basic pay and fixed pay at the stage next above. Interim relief did not continue as a separate amount after fixation.

Why was the third instalment of interim relief not counted in the 1996 pay fixation?

Because it began after the effective date of the revised scales. The 5th CPC scales took effect from 1 January 1996 and the third instalment ran from 1 April 1996, so Rule 7(1)(A) of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 1997 counts only the first and second instalments in existing emoluments. An employee who moved to the revised scales from 1 January 1996 drew the revised pay rather than the third instalment.

Did pensioners get interim relief at the same rate as serving employees?

No. Paragraph 138.23 of the Fifth Central Pay Commission report records that interim relief for pensioners was recommended for the first time in October 1994, at a uniform Rs. 50 a month against the Rs. 100 a month serving employees had drawn since 16 September 1993, and that pensioners were granted the first and second instalments only with effect from 1 April 1995.

Was interim relief payable during leave and suspension?

Partly. Office Memorandum No. F. 7(13)-E.III/96 dated 6 May 1996 clarified that during earned leave, half pay leave or study leave, interim relief at 10% subject to a minimum of Rs. 100 was payable on the full pay or the half pay according to the leave salary drawn, and that no interim relief was admissible during extraordinary leave.

Is interim relief taxable?

Yes, as salary in the year of receipt. The direction that interim relief is not to be termed pay, allowance or wages governs service benefits such as pension and allowance entitlement, not chargeability to income tax. Because interim relief is paid month by month rather than as a lump sum, it does not produce the bunching that revised-pay arrears do.

Will there be interim relief before the 8th CPC?

None has been announced. The terms of reference in Department of Expenditure Resolution F. No. 01-01/2025-E.III(A) dated 3 November 2025 do not provide for interim relief, and the Government told the Lok Sabha in answer to Unstarred Question No. 212 on 1 December 2025 that there is no proposal to merge dearness allowance with basic pay. Employee federations have demanded both. Any percentage circulating in the press is a demand, not a sanctioned amount.

External references

References

Report of the Fifth Central Pay Commission (submitted 30 January 1997), paragraphs 138.22 and 138.23, on the history of interim relief from 1957 and on interim relief to pensioners.
Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure, Office Memorandum No. 7(51)-E.III/95 dated 14 July 1995, granting interim relief of 10% of basic pay subject to a minimum of Rs. 100 a month with effect from 1 April 1995.
Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure, Office Memorandum No. F. 7(13)-E.III/96 dated 6 May 1996, clarifying entitlement to interim relief during leave and suspension.
Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 49014/2/93-Estt.(C) dated 2 August 1995, extending the second instalment of interim relief to casual labourers with temporary status.
CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 1997 (G.S.R. 569(E) dated 30 September 1997), Rule 7(1)(A) and the Explanation to it, on existing emoluments and the 40% addition.
Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure, Resolution No. 50(1)/IC/97 dated 30 September 1997, accepting the Fifth Central Pay Commission recommendations with modifications, including the fitment of 40% in place of the recommended 20%.
Report of the Sixth Central Pay Commission (March 2008), terms of reference item G on interim relief, as substituted by Ministry of Finance Resolution No. 5/2/2006-E.III(A) dated 7 December 2006, and paragraphs 2.2.5 and 4.1.18 on dearness pay and the merger question.
Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure, Office Memorandum F. No. 105/1/2004-IC dated 1 March 2004, merging dearness allowance equal to 50% of basic pay as dearness pay with effect from 1 April 2004.
Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure, Resolution No. 1/1/2013-E.III(A) dated 28 February 2014, constituting the Seventh Central Pay Commission, and the Report of the Seventh Central Pay Commission (submitted 19 November 2015).
Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure, Resolution F. No. 01-01/2025-E.III(A) dated 3 November 2025, constituting the Eighth Central Pay Commission, and Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 212 answered on 1 December 2025 on the merger of dearness allowance with basic pay.