Interim relief

Interim relief is a provisional pay rise granted while a pay commission deliberates, later absorbed into revised pay. Its history, and the 8th CPC demand.

Updated 18 August 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. Its purpose is to give partial relief in advance, because a commission usually takes two to three years to report and its revised scales are then given retrospective effect. When the revised pay is finally fixed, interim relief is not kept as an extra: it is adjusted against arrears and absorbed into the new pay.

The measure recurs at every pay-commission cycle as a demand, and it is granted in some cycles and refused in others, which makes it one of the more misunderstood terms in central pay. It is routinely confused with dearness allowance and with the fitment factor, and in the current cycle it is caught up with the demand for a dearness-allowance merger ahead of the 8th Central Pay Commission. This article explains what interim relief is, its history across the commissions, how it is treated when the award comes, and where the 8th CPC demand stands.

What interim relief is

Three features define interim relief. It is provisional, a stop-gap paid while the commission works, described by the Staff Side of the Joint Consultative Machinery as a provisional payment in view of the market situation. It is adjustable, merging into the revised pay on implementation, so much so that the first instalment orders of the 5th CPC era directed that it be treated as neither pay nor allowance nor wage. And it is discretionary, not automatic: whether to sanction it is usually written into a commission’s terms of reference as a matter for the commission and the government to decide, and it has been refused as often as granted.

Two distinctions carry most of the confusion, and both are worth stating plainly.

Interim relief is not a dearness-allowance increase. Dearness allowance is a permanent, rule-based component revised twice a year to neutralise inflation, computed from the twelve-month average of the All-India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers, currently 60% of basic pay from 1 January 2026. It runs in the normal course even while a commission deliberates. Interim relief is a separate, one-off grant tied to the commission cycle, paid on top of dearness allowance and later absorbed.

Interim relief is not the fitment benefit. The fitment factor, 2.57 in the 7th CPC, is the multiplier the commission uses to fix the new basic pay, permanently absorbing the accumulated dearness allowance and delivering the real rise. Interim relief is the temporary bridge paid before that fitment happens, and it does not survive fitment as a distinct amount.

The history, commission by commission

Interim relief has a long record, and the pattern of when it was granted is as telling as the amounts.

Before the 2nd Central Pay Commission, interim relief of Rs. 5 a month was granted with effect from 1 July 1957 to employees drawing basic pay of not more than Rs. 250 a month. It is the earliest concrete instance and is cited in later commission reports as the precedent.

Around the 4th Central Pay Commission, which was constituted in 1983 and whose scales took effect from 1 January 1986, interim relief was granted in two steps. A first instalment from 1 June 1983 gave employees the option of a flat additional payment or placement on a revised interim pay scale, an arrangement recorded in the Supreme Court’s judgment in D.T.C. Workers’ Union versus Delhi Transport Corporation. A second instalment from 1 March 1985 gave 10% of basic pay subject to a minimum of Rs. 50 a month. On implementation of the 4th CPC scales from 1 January 1986, both reliefs merged into the new scale.

The 5th Central Pay Commission cycle is the richest instance, and the source of the common belief that there were two or three instalments. There were three. A first instalment from 16 September 1993 gave a flat Rs. 100 a month, directed to be treated as neither pay nor allowance nor wage. A second from 1 April 1995 gave 10% of basic pay subject to a minimum of Rs. 100 a month. A third from 1 April 1996 gave a further 10% of basic pay subject to a minimum of Rs. 100 a month. Pensioners received parallel instalments. All three were absorbed into the revised pay when the 5th CPC scales took effect from 1 January 1996.

Before the 6th Central Pay Commission, no interim relief was granted, even though examining its desirability was written into the commission’s terms of reference. A related but different measure had already been taken: from 1 April 2004, dearness allowance equal to 50% of basic pay was merged with basic pay as dearness pay under Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum F. No. 105/1/2004-IC dated 1 March 2004, acting on the recommendation in paragraph 105.11 of the 5th CPC report that dearness allowance be converted into dearness pay each time the consumer price index rose 50% over the base index. That was a dearness-allowance merger, not interim relief, and the two should not be run together.

Before the 7th Central Pay Commission, again no interim relief was granted, and the commission was not preceded by any. The Staff Side of the Joint Consultative Machinery demanded both a dearness-allowance merger and interim relief. The commission’s chairman told the Staff Side there was no communication from the government authorising an interim report on the merger demand, and conveyed the Staff Side’s protest to the government, but no interim relief followed. The accumulated dearness allowance, which had reached 125% by 1 January 2016, was instead absorbed through the fitment factor of 2.57 under the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016.

How interim relief is treated when the award comes

The settled rule is that interim relief is adjusted against arrears and absorbed into the revised pay when the commission’s award is implemented. It is not paid as a separate benefit on top of the new scales. The revised scales take retrospective effect from a notified date; arrears are computed as the revised entitlement minus what the employee actually drew; and the interim relief already paid counts as part of what was drawn, so it reduces the arrears due. Because the first-instalment orders classified interim relief as not pay, not allowance and not wage, it generally did not itself attract dearness allowance or count for most allowances while it ran.

It helps to keep interim relief and dearness-allowance merger side by side, because both are tools for giving relief before a final award and they are easily confused. Interim relief is a fresh ad hoc amount. A dearness-allowance merger converts a slice of existing dearness allowance into pay, as the dearness pay of 2004 did. Paragraph 4.1.18 of the 6th CPC report declined to continue the conversion, on the ground that a merger should invariably be accompanied by a revision of the base index, which the 2004 order did not do, and that conversion was unnecessary in a structure 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, and the 7th CPC did not revive a standing merger rule.

The 8th CPC demand

The 8th Central Pay Commission was announced in January 2025, and its terms of reference were approved in late 2025. Because a commission takes time to report, employee federations, including the Staff Side of the National Council of the Joint Consultative Machinery and the Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers, have demanded interim relief and a merger of 50% of dearness allowance into basic pay pending the award.

These are demands. No interim relief and no dearness-allowance merger have been announced ahead of the 8th CPC. Figures that appear in the press, such as a particular percentage of interim relief, are unofficial demands or estimates, not sanctioned amounts, and no 8th CPC pay figure has been notified. As with any 8th CPC number, the position until the commission reports and revised rules are notified is that 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; interim relief is a discretionary, commission-linked grant paid on top of it.
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 provisional, not a permanent raise. It is absorbed into revised pay and adjusted against arrears.
Interim relief is not a dearness-allowance merger. A merger converts existing dearness allowance into pay; interim relief is a new ad hoc amount.
Interim relief is not guaranteed each cycle. It was granted before the 2nd, 4th and 5th commissions, not before the 6th or 7th, and none has been announced before the 8th.

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 adjusted against arrears and absorbed into the new pay.

Is interim relief the same as dearness allowance?

No. Dearness allowance is a permanent, twice-yearly component that neutralises inflation under a standing formula. 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.

Which pay commissions granted interim relief?

Interim relief was granted before the 2nd, 4th and 5th Central Pay Commissions. It was not granted before the 6th or 7th Central Pay Commissions, and none has been announced before the 8th. Whether to grant it is a discretionary decision each cycle.

Did the 7th CPC grant interim relief?

No. No interim relief was granted before or during the 7th Central Pay Commission. The Staff Side demanded interim relief and a dearness-allowance merger, but neither was sanctioned; the accumulated dearness allowance was instead absorbed through the 2.57 fitment factor.

What happens to interim relief when the pay commission reports?

It is absorbed into the revised pay and adjusted against arrears. Because the revised scales take retrospective effect, the interim relief already paid counts as part of what was drawn and reduces the arrears due; it does not continue as a separate amount.

Will there be interim relief before the 8th CPC?

Employee federations have demanded interim relief and a 50% dearness-allowance merger ahead of the 8th Central Pay Commission, but none has been announced. Any figure circulating in the press is a demand or an estimate, not a sanctioned amount.

External references

References

Report of the Fifth Central Pay Commission (submitted 30 January 1997), and the Government’s acceptance memorandum, Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure, on the interim relief instalments.
Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 49014/2/93-Estt.(C) dated 2 August 1995, granting interim relief of 10% of basic pay subject to a minimum of Rs. 100 a month with effect from 1 April 1995.
Report of the Sixth Central Pay Commission (March 2008), terms of reference on interim relief, and its reasoning on dearness-allowance conversion.
Report of the Seventh Central Pay Commission (submitted 19 November 2015), and the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016 (G.S.R. 721(E) dated 25 July 2016), on the absorption of dearness allowance through the fitment factor.
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 (distinguished from interim relief).
Supreme Court of India, D.T.C. Workers’ Union versus Delhi Transport Corporation (1991), on the 4th CPC-era interim relief and its merger on implementation.