IPS salary

An IPS officer’s pay starts at Rs. 56,100 a month, the first cell of Level 10 of the pay matrix, fixed there by Rule 5(1) of the Indian Police Service (Pay) Rules, 2016. Those Rules were notified by the Department of Personnel and Training as G.S.R. 910(E) on 23 September 2016, in supersession of the Indian Police Service (Pay) Rules, 2007, and are deemed to have come into force from 1 January 2016. At the dearness allowance of 60% from 1 January 2026, an officer on central deputation in an X-class city draws a gross of Rs. 1,18,110 and an in-hand of about Rs. 1,01,300.

The instrument matters more than the figure. Pay for the Indian Police Service is not set by the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016 that govern a central civil servant, but by a separate statutory code made under section 3(1) of the All India Services Act, 1951. Rule 3(1) of that code runs the ladder from the Junior Scale at Level 10 to the Apex Scale at Level 17, Note 1 below it fixes the eligibility service for each rung, and Schedule II attaches a level to each post in each cadre. Level 17 is the ceiling: only the IAS reaches Level 18.

This page works through that code. It sets out the entry cell and the deductions that turn Rs. 1,18,110 of gross into about Rs. 1,01,300 of in-hand, the statutory ladder and the service required for each grade, the promotion fixation rules, the two additional increments the IAS draws and the IPS does not, non-functional upgradation under Note 1, the Schedule II posts at Levels 16 and 17, the special allowances, the increment and departmental examination rules, entry from the State Police Service, the training, and pension under the All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958.

One qualifier runs through all of it. Basic pay is uniform in every cadre because the Union fixes it, but allowances are not, because Rule 2(b) of the All India Services (Compensatory Allowance) Rules, 1954 hands that power to the government the officer is serving. Every in-hand figure below is the central deputation case, and the section on state cadre pay explains what changes. The salary by pay level calculator recomputes the entry figure for a chosen city class.

Entry pay under Rule 5(1)

Rule 5(1) of the IPS (Pay) Rules, 2016 fixes the initial pay of a direct recruit at the minimum pay, or the first cell, of Level 10 of the pay matrix. That cell is Rs. 56,100, the same starting point as the IAS and the Indian Revenue Service, because all three enter the Junior Scale.

The proviso to Rule 5(1) varies this for a recruit who already holds a lien on a permanent post. Clause (b) fixes an officer who held a Group A post at the same stage in Level 10 as the pay of that post. Clause (c) gives an officer from a post below Group A one increment on the pay of that post and places the result in Level 10, with a floor at the first cell where the result falls short. Clause (d) then stops such an officer earning further increments in the Junior Scale until his length of service entitles him to higher pay. In practice this reaches the small number of direct recruits who were already in government service before clearing the Civil Services Examination.

In-hand at entry

The build-up below is for an officer serving in connection with the affairs of the Union in an X-class city, at dearness allowance of 60% from 1 January 2026 under Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 1/1(i)/2026-E.II(B) dated 22 April 2026.

Income tax is not nil at this cell, and the arithmetic is worth setting out because the belief that it is nil is common. Annual gross is Rs. 14,17,320. The standard deduction of Rs. 75,000 leaves taxable income of Rs. 13,42,320, which is above the Rs. 12 lakh rebate threshold, so the new regime slabs apply in full and produce Rs. 81,348 of tax, Rs. 3,254 of cess, and Rs. 84,602 for the year. That is Rs. 7,050 a month.

Two of the deduction rows are All India Service rows rather than central civil service rows. The Rs. 650 subscription is the CGHS rate for Levels 7 to 11 under Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Office Memorandum No. S.11011/11/2016-CGHS(P)/EHS dated 9 January 2017, and it steps up to Rs. 1,000 on promotion to Level 12. Group insurance for a member of an All India Service is governed by the All India Services (Group Insurance) Rules, 1981 rather than by the CGEGIS scheme of 1980 that covers a central civil servant, though the Group A rate is Rs. 120 either way.

The rank and pay ladder under Rule 3(1)

Rule 3(1) states the ladder in terms of scales, not field designations. The scale names are the operative ones, because the eligibility service in Note 1 and the fixation rules in Rule 5 are all written against them.

The right-hand column is a convenience, not a rule. Rule 3(1) names the Deputy Inspector General and the Inspector General because those two designations appear in the Super Time Scale entries, but it does not name a Superintendent of Police at all. Field designations attach to posts through Schedule II, and the same designation carries different levels in different cadres, which the next section sets out.

The Selection Grade cell of Rs. 1,23,100 is the revised figure. The 7th CPC had put the first cell of Level 13 at Rs. 1,18,500 on an index of rationalisation of 2.57, and the Resolution dated 16 May 2017 raised the index to 2.67, lifting the whole level for every service that uses it. Level 17 carries a single cell and no increments, so an officer there draws Rs. 2,25,000 for as long as the post is held.

Eligibility service for each grade

Note 1 below Rule 3(1) fixes how long an officer must serve before becoming eligible for each grade, and the periods are statutory rather than customary. An officer becomes eligible for the Senior Time Scale on completing four years of service, subject to sub-rule (2) of rule 6A of the Indian Police Service (Recruitment) Rules, 1954, for the Junior Administrative Grade on nine years, for the Selection Grade on thirteen years, for Deputy Inspector General on fourteen years and for Inspector General on eighteen years.

Note 2 says those periods run from the year of allotment assigned under Rule 3 of the Indian Police Service (Regulation of Seniority) Rules, 1988, not from the date an officer joined the academy. Note 3 excludes from the count any extraordinary leave taken otherwise than on medical certificate, unless the state government treats it as taken for a cause beyond the officer’s control or for study that would have qualified for study leave under the All India Services (Study Leave) Regulations, 1960.

Eligibility is not entitlement, and three separate provisions stand between the two. Rule 3(2)(i) requires appointment to the Selection Grade and above to be made by selection on merit, on criteria the Central Government prescribes, with due regard to seniority. Rule 3(2)(ii) makes such appointment subject to the availability of vacancies and obliges the state cadre or joint cadre authority to seek the prior concurrence of the Central Government on the number of vacancies in each grade, on pain of the appointment being liable for cancellation; Rule 3(2)(iii) deems concurrence given if the centre does not respond within thirty days, and puts the position before the Screening Committee. Rule 3(2)(iv) then bars an officer from drawing Selection Grade pay until actually appointed to that grade.

The supply of Selection Grade posts is itself capped. Clause (1) of Schedule II Part (B) fixes the number of Selection Grade posts in a state cadre at 20% of the total senior posts in the state, reduced by the number of posts carrying pay above the senior time scale, subject to a floor of 15% of the senior posts, and clause (2) works the figure out on authorised strength rather than on temporary additions. “Senior posts in the State” takes its meaning from item 1 of the Schedule to the Indian Police Service (Fixation of Cadre Strength) Regulations, 1955. This is why an officer in a small cadre can pass thirteen years of service and still wait for Level 13.

Two provisos to Rule 3(2) add a training condition to two of the rungs. An officer is appointed to the Junior Administrative Grade only after completing Phase III of the mandatory Mid Career Training Programme, and to Super Time Scale (ii) only after Phase IV, in each case with effect from the date on which he would have been eligible but for the training. A third proviso exempts an officer with less than three years of service remaining in the year he is slotted for Phase III, IV or V.

How pay is fixed on each promotion

Rule 5 fixes pay on promotion the same way at every rung of the Senior Scale: one increment in the level the officer is promoted from, then placement at the cell in the new level equal to the figure so arrived at, or the next higher cell if no equal cell exists. Rule 5(2) applies it from Level 10 to Level 11, Rule 5(4) from Level 11 to Level 12, Rule 5(5) from Level 12 to Level 13, and Rule 5(6) covers both Super Time Scale steps, Level 13 to Level 13A and Level 13A to Level 14.

Each of those sub-rules carries a floor. Where the pay arrived at falls below the minimum of the level being entered, the officer is fixed at that minimum. The floor does real work at Level 13, whose first cell of Rs. 1,23,100 sits Rs. 44,300 above the first cell of Level 12, a gap no single increment in Level 12 can close.

Rules 5(7) and 5(8) handle the two top steps and add a ceiling as well as a floor: promotion from Level 14 to Level 15, and from Level 15 to Level 16, carries one increment, a minimum at the first cell of the new level, and a bar on exceeding the maximum of that level. Rule 5(9) gives an officer an option on any promotion, to have pay fixed either from the date of promotion or from the date the next increment would have fallen due in the lower level, in which case pay stays at the lower figure until 1 January or 1 July and is re-fixed then. For most officers the deferred option is the better one, because it preserves a full increment in the lower level before the promotion fixation runs.

The two additional increments the IAS draws and the IPS does not

The IPS and the IAS are paid identically at entry and diverge on promotion, and the reason is a single sub-rule that exists in one set of rules and not the other. Rule 3(1)(B) of the IAS (Pay) Rules, 2016 grants two additional increments at the time of pay fixation on promotion to each of three grades: the Senior Time Scale at Level 11, the Junior Administrative Grade at Level 12 and the Selection Grade at Level 13. The IPS (Pay) Rules, 2016 contain no equivalent, so an IPS officer promotes into the plain cell that Rule 5 produces.

The concession is shared with the Indian Foreign Service and denied to the IPS and the Indian Forest Service. Paragraph 14 of Department of Expenditure Resolution No. 1-2/2016-IC dated 25 July 2016 lists the grant of two additional increments to the IPS and the Indian Forest Service at par with the IAS and the IFS among the 7th CPC recommendations on which the Commission could not reach a consensus, and directs that status quo be maintained until the Government takes a decision. No such decision has been notified, so the position of 2016 continues.

What that is worth can be computed exactly. Take two officers of one batch, both fixed at Rs. 56,100, both drawing one annual increment a year, and both promoted on the eligibility service in Note 1 to Rule 3(1).

The table is an illustration on stated assumptions, not a universal figure, since the gap moves with the exact cell each officer occupies when promoted. Three features of it hold regardless. The gap is largest at Level 12, where the IAS officer’s six accumulated extra cells all count and no floor intervenes. It shrinks at Level 13, because the Level 13 floor of Rs. 1,23,100 catches the IPS officer up and discards part of the IAS lead. And it stops growing after Level 13, because Rules 5(7) and 5(8) of the IAS rules carry one increment only, exactly as the IPS rules do; at Level 17 the two services draw the identical fixed Rs. 2,25,000.

A figure of Rs. 13,000 to Rs. 17,000 a month is often quoted for this gap. It does not match the pay matrix at the levels where the additional increments operate, and no order states it.

Non-functional upgradation under Note 1

Non-functional upgradation is the provision that stops an IPS officer falling behind in level while waiting for a vacancy, and for the IPS it is statutory rather than an executive instruction. Note 1 below Rule 3(2) of the IPS (Pay) Rules, 2016 provides that whenever an IAS officer of a particular batch is posted at the centre in Levels 10, 11, 12, 13, 13A, 14 or 15 of the pay matrix, members of the IPS who are senior to that officer by two years or more and have not so far been promoted to that level are granted the same level on a non-functional basis in their respective state cadres, from the date of that posting.

An officer who is himself at the centre when the upgradation falls due is treated differently. Note 1 fixes his basic pay by granting one increment in the existing pay in the applicable existing level, subject to the minimum of the level of non-functional upgradation, and expressly denies him pay at the higher level; he continues to draw the pay of the post he holds under the Central Staffing Scheme along with Central (Deputation on Tenure) Allowance where admissible. The logic is that he is already being paid for a centre post, so the higher level would pay twice for the same grade.

The distinction from the additional increments is worth holding separately, because the two are often merged. Non-functional upgradation moves an IPS officer to the level an IAS officer of a batch two years junior has reached. It does not move him to the same cell within that level, since the IAS officer got there carrying two extra increments at each of three rungs. The IPS keeps pace on the level and loses ground inside it. Paragraph 14 of the Resolution dated 25 July 2016 holds non-functional upgradation at status quo alongside the increments question, so its continuance rests on the Note surviving in the Gazette rather than on any fresh order.

Levels 16 and 17: what the top actually pays

The top of the IPS ladder is thinner than the rank names suggest, and Schedule II is where the levels are actually settled. Schedule II Part (A) lists, cadre by cadre, the posts carrying pay above the Senior Scale as they stood on 1 January 2016, and the level attaches to the post rather than to the designation.

The Andhra Pradesh entry is the full pattern: Director General of Police (Head of Police Force) at Level 17, Director General of Police at Level 16, Additional Director General of Police at Level 15, Inspector General of Police at Level 14 and Deputy Inspector General of Police at Level 13A. Smaller cadres are shorter. The Arunachal Pradesh entry has no Level 17 post at all and puts its Director General of Police at Level 16; the Goa entry puts the Director General of Police at Level 15, held in the rank of Additional Director General. Note 2 below Rule 3(2) then provides that the post of Director General of Police (Head of Police Force) in the Apex Scale is filled by selection from among the officers holding the post of Director General of Police in the state cadre at Level 16.

Schedule II Part (C) covers the central posts, and ten of them carry Level 17: the Director of the Intelligence Bureau, the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Directors General of the Border Security Force, the Central Reserve Police Force, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the Central Industrial Security Force, the National Security Guard, the Railway Protection Force under the Railways and the Sashastra Seema Bal (item 13), and the Director General of the National Investigation Agency (item 19). A further set sits at Level 16, including the Special Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Special Directors General of the Border Security Force and the Central Reserve Police Force, the Director General of the Bureau of Police Research and Development, and the Director of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy. The Special Director of the Intelligence Bureau is listed at Level 17 or Level 16.

Two consequences follow for pay. An IPS officer heading a Central Armed Police Force draws the same Rs. 2,25,000 as the Director of the Intelligence Bureau, the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Director General of Police heading a large state force, because Level 17 has one cell. And Rule 11 provides that an officer appointed to a Schedule II post draws the pay indicated for that post plus special allowance or Central (Deputation on Tenure) Allowance where admissible, subject to a floor: that pay shall not at any time be less than what Rules 5 and 8 would have given him.

Special allowances inside the Pay Rules

Two special allowances are written into the IPS (Pay) Rules, 2016 themselves, which is unusual, since most allowances for central government employees come from separate Department of Expenditure orders.

Clause (3) of Schedule II Part (B) makes a state government competent to grant a special allowance for the posts listed in that Part, either individually or by group or class of post. Clause (4) fixes the amounts: Rs. 400 for a post in the Junior Time Scale, Rs. 600 in the Senior Time Scale, Rs. 800 in the Junior Administrative Grade and Rs. 1,000 in the Selection Grade. Clause (5) leaves posts in the Junior Scale outside the Schedule but keeps the state’s competence to sanction a special allowance for them intact. These are 2016 amounts and have not been revised with dearness allowance.

The central rate is higher and is set post by post in Schedule II Part (C), at 10% of basic pay subject to a maximum of Rs. 4,000 a month. It runs against a defined list, among them the Deputy Director and Assistant Director of the Intelligence Bureau, the Deputy Inspector General and the Superintendents of Police in the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Deputy Inspector General ranks in the Border Security Force, the Central Reserve Police Force, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and the Central Industrial Security Force, and the Deputy Director and Assistant Director at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy. It is a post allowance, not a rank allowance: an officer of the same seniority in a state cadre post draws nothing under this head.

Rule 7 adds a protection rather than an allowance. Where an officer on deputation to the Central Government under the Central Staffing Scheme would, after fixation, draw less than he would have drawn in his parent cadre, the difference is protected as personal pay with effect from 25 July 2016; the same protection applies where the officer is promoted in the cadre while on central deputation.

Increments, the departmental examination and advance increments

Rule 8(1)(a) sets the increment at the next vertical cell of the applicable level, and Rule 8(1)(b) gives two increment dates a year, 1 January and 1 July, replacing the single 1 July date of the old structure. An officer appointed, promoted or granted financial upgradation between 2 January and 1 July takes his increment on the following 1 January, and one appointed between 2 July and 1 January takes it on the following 1 July.

Leave counts for increment under Rule 8(2), with one exception: extraordinary leave taken otherwise than on medical certificate does not count, unless the state government is satisfied it was taken for a cause beyond the officer’s control or for higher scientific or technical study in the public interest for which study leave would have been admissible. Where leave does not count, Rule 8(3) postpones the next increment by the period involved rather than cancelling it.

The departmental examination has direct pay consequences in both directions. Rule 9 lets the State Government withhold an increment, for such time as it directs, from a direct recruit or a promoted State Police Service officer who fails to pass the prescribed departmental examination within the time the state fixes, and provides that the withholding shall have no cumulative effect. Rule 10 runs the other way and is the more valuable of the two: notwithstanding rule 13 of the Indian Police Service (Probation) Rules, 1954, the State Government shall sanction the second and third increments due to a direct recruit with effect from the prescribed date of increment once he passes the examination, irrespective of his length of service. The proviso makes the third increment retrospective from the prescribed date on successful completion of probation and confirmation, and a second proviso deems an officer exempted from all or part of the examination to have passed it at the earliest sitting he would otherwise have attended.

Rule 8 also carries a late-career increment tied to training. An officer who has completed 28 years of service becomes eligible to draw an increment with retrospective effect after completing Phase V of the mandatory Mid Career Training Programme.

Entry from the State Police Service

A substantial part of the Indian Police Service is not directly recruited, and the Pay Rules treat that entry separately. Rule 5(3) covers a State Police Service officer appointed to the Service, or appointed to officiate in a cadre post under rule 9 of the Indian Police Service (Cadre) Rules, 1954, and also covers officers recruited as Deputy Superintendent of Police in a state, or as Assistant Commandant in a Central Para Military Force, who enter through the Limited Competitive Examination. Rule 4(1) of the Indian Police Service (Recruitment) Rules, 1954 provides no such method: it lists only the competitive examination and promotion from a State Police Service. Pay in all these cases is fixed on the principles in Schedule I.

Schedule I turns on two defined terms. “Actual pay” is the pay to which the officer is entitled by virtue of his substantive position in the State Police Service cadre, or by virtue of having worked continuously in a temporary or officiating capacity in a higher post for three years or more after following the prescribed procedure. “Assumed pay” is the pay he would have drawn in the scale in which he was confirmed, or in which he had so worked for three years or more. Both definitions strip out any dearness allowance, dearness pay, interim relief or additional relief that a state sanctioned after 1 January 2016 and merged into a revised state scale, so a state pay revision does not inflate the fixation.

Clause (1) of Schedule I then fixes the initial pay of a promoted officer at the stage of the Senior Scale next above his actual pay, notwithstanding Note 1 to Rule 3(1), with a proviso that where that stage is common to more than one component of the Senior Scale, pay is fixed in the lower or lowest component. Since the Senior Scale spans Levels 11, 12 and 13, the proviso decides which of the three an officer enters, and it resolves against him. Clause (5) of the same Schedule adds a floor: the pay of a promoted officer shall not in any case be fixed below the minimum of the Senior Time Scale, which is Rs. 67,700.

Why a state cadre officer’s in-hand differs

The in-hand of about Rs. 1,01,300 set out earlier is the central deputation figure, and an officer serving a state cadre will usually see something else. Basic pay is not the reason: Rule 3(1) of the IPS (Pay) Rules, 2016 fixes the level and the pay matrix fixes the cell, and both are uniform across all cadres.

Allowances are the reason. Rule 2(b) of the All India Services (Compensatory Allowance) Rules, 1954, notified as No. 20/1/54-AIS(II) on 14 September 1954, defines “Government” for a member serving in connection with the affairs of a state as the government of that state, and Rule 3 leaves the grant of compensatory allowance and the conditions on it to that government’s general or special orders. Where no All India Service rule covers a matter at all, Rule 2 of the All India Services (Conditions of Service, Residuary Matters) Rules, 1960 sends it to the rules for officers of State Police Services, Class I. Rule 13(b) of the Pay Rules applies the same principle to additional pay for holding more than one post.

House rent allowance, transport allowance, medical attendance and accommodation therefore vary by cadre. The variation is not marginal in the field, because many IPS posts carry an official residence, and an officer occupying government accommodation draws no house rent allowance and pays licence fee instead. The salary is also paid from the state’s funds for an officer serving that state, which is why the pay is uniform across the country while the paying government changes with the posting.

Allowances an IPS officer draws

Beyond the three core allowances in the entry table, the entitlement that is specific to the IPS as a uniformed service is Dress Allowance. The rate for officers of the Indian Police Service, the Central Armed Police Forces, the Railway Protection Force and the Railway Protection Special Force was set at Rs. 20,000 a year by Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 19051/1/2017-E.IV dated 2 August 2017, and stands at Rs. 25,000 since 1 January 2024, the base rate having been enhanced by 25% when dearness allowance reached 50%. It is paid once a year with the July salary. An officer joining after the July payment draws a proportionate share under paragraph 3 of Office Memorandum No. 19051/1/2017-E.IV dated 24 March 2025, computed as the annual amount divided by twelve and multiplied by the months from joining to the following June.

Dearness allowance is 60% of basic pay from 1 January 2026 and applies to every level identically. Transport allowance is the Level 9 and above rate of Rs. 7,200 in a higher-transport city and Rs. 3,600 elsewhere, plus dearness allowance on that amount. There is no rank-based field allowance for IPS officers in the Pay Rules beyond the two special allowances in Schedule II, and hardship or operational allowances that some officers draw attach to the posting, such as a Central Armed Police Forces deputation in a notified area, rather than to the IPS rank.

Training and its effect on pay

An IPS probationer trains before taking charge, and two stages of that training are written into the pay rules rather than left to administrative practice. The Foundation Course at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie runs 14 weeks and is shared with the other All India Services and the Group A central services. The probationer then moves to the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad for the Basic Course, which the Academy runs in Phase I and Phase II with District Practical Training between them, and assesses over 2,200 marks: 1,200 for indoor subjects, 600 for outdoor subjects and 400 for the Director’s assessment. The indoor papers cover the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, investigation, forensics, criminology, ethics and human rights, internal security and information technology; the outdoor papers cover physical fitness, drill, weapons, unarmed combat, fieldcraft, map reading and equitation.

Confirmation follows the training and the probation period, which runs two years for a competitive examination recruit under rule 3(1) of the Indian Police Service (Probation) Rules, 1954, and the departmental examination attached to it is what triggers the Rule 10 advance increments and what Rule 9 penalises if failed. The Mid Career Training Programme, also run at the Academy, then gates two promotions and one increment: Phase III before the Junior Administrative Grade, Phase IV before Super Time Scale (ii) under the provisos to Rule 3(2), and Phase V before the 28-year increment under Rule 8.

Pension and retirement age

Pension for an IPS officer turns on the date of appointment, and it is not governed by the rules that cover a central civil servant. The second proviso to Rule 1(2)(b) of the All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958 excludes persons appointed to the Service on or after 1 January 2004 from those rules, which puts every officer of the junior and middle grades today on a contributory scheme. An officer appointed before that date draws pension under Rule 18(1)(b) of the 1958 Rules, computed at 50% of emoluments or of average emoluments, whichever is more beneficial, after not less than ten years of qualifying service.

Rule 2(e) of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021, notified as G.S.R. 868(E) on 20 December 2021, excludes members of the All India Services by name, so the Rule 44 pension calculation that applies to a central civil servant does not apply to an IPS officer. The two routes arrive at the same 50% figure by different provisions.

A post-2004 officer is on the National Pension System, contributing 10% of basic plus dearness allowance against the government’s 14%. The Unified Pension Scheme reaches an IPS officer, but not through the Central Civil Services (Implementation of the Unified Pension Scheme under the National Pension System) Rules, 2025, which do not apply for the same reason the 2021 Pension Rules do not. The route is the PFRDA (Operationalisation of the Unified Pension Scheme under the National Pension System) Regulations, 2025, gazetted on 19 March 2025, which expressly cover All India Services officers of States who are under the National Pension System, read with Department of Personnel and Training letter No. 25014/01/2025-AIS-II (Pension) dated 30 April 2025 advising all States and Union Territories to facilitate implementation for willing officers. A state cadre officer exercises the option through his state government. The Old Pension Scheme is closed to post-2004 entrants.

Rule 16(1) of the 1958 Rules retires an officer from the afternoon of the last day of the month in which he attains the age of 60. Rule 16(1A) allows an extension in the public interest for the incumbents of named posts, three of which are IPS posts: the Director of the Intelligence Bureau, the Secretary of the Research and Analysis Wing and the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The Ministry of Home Affairs and the cadre

The Ministry of Home Affairs is the cadre-controlling authority for the Indian Police Service, where the Department of Personnel and Training controls the IAS, and it runs the recruitment intake, the cadre allotment and the empanelment for central postings in the Central Armed Police Forces, the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Intelligence Bureau. The Pay Rules themselves were notified by the Department of Personnel and Training, which is the department that makes rules under the All India Services Act, 1951 for all three All India Services.

Entry is through the Civil Services Examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission. Examination Notice No. 05/2026-CSE dated 4 February 2026 put the vacancies for the 2026 examination at 933 across all the services the examination feeds, with 33 reserved for persons with benchmark disability, and stated that the final number may change once the cadre-controlling authorities confirm firm vacancies. The notice publishes no service-wise break-up, so the IPS share for a given year is settled later by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The 8th Central Pay Commission position

The 8th Central Pay Commission was constituted by Department of Expenditure Resolution F. No. 01-01/2025-E.III(A) dated 3 November 2025, with an eighteen-month reporting window ending 3 May 2027. It has published no report. No fitment factor, minimum pay, revised pay matrix or effective date exists, and the Resolution fixes no effective date, so no arrears position exists either.

Any specific 8th CPC figure quoted for an IPS rank today is a projection rather than an entitlement. IPS pay changes only when the IPS (Pay) Rules, 2016 are amended or superseded by a notified instrument, as the 2016 Rules themselves superseded the Indian Police Service (Pay) Rules, 2007. The 7th CPC precedent is that the Rules for the three All India Services were notified separately from the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016 and some months later, the IAS rules on 8 September 2016 and the IPS rules on 23 September 2016.

How IPS pay compares

The IPS shares its entry cell with the IAS and the Indian Revenue Service, all three at Level 10 and Rs. 56,100, and all three climb the same pay matrix. The differences are structural rather than a matter of degree. The IAS ladder in Rule 3(1) of its own Pay Rules runs to Level 18, the Cabinet Secretary grade at Rs. 2,50,000, where the IPS ladder stops at Level 17. The IAS carries the two additional increments at three rungs that the IPS does not. The IPS carries a statutory non-functional upgradation that the IAS, being the benchmark against which the two-year rule is measured, does not receive at all.

Against the posts filled through the SSC CGL examination, an income tax officer or an income tax inspector among them, the IPS enters far above, at Level 10 rather than the Level 4 to 8 range of those posts. The salary by pay level chart sets out the entry pay at every level, and the central government jobs hub places the services side by side.

Related Articles

• Indian Police Service
• All India Services pay rules, 2016
• IAS salary
• Indian Revenue Service
• Indian Foreign Service
• Indian Forest Service
• All India Services
• Civil Services Examination
• Union Public Service Commission
• Central Staffing Scheme
• Non-functional upgradation
• Mid Career Training Programme
• Probation in central government service
• Departmental examination
• Central Armed Police Forces
• CAPF Constable salary
• Railway Protection Force
• Central Bureau of Investigation
• Central government jobs
• Income tax officer
• Income tax inspector salary
• SSC CGL salary
• Salary by pay level
• Salary by pay level calculator
• 7th CPC salary calculator
• Pay matrix
• Index of rationalisation
• 7th Central Pay Commission
• 8th Central Pay Commission
• CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016
• Annual increment
• Pay fixation on promotion
• Take-home salary of central government employees
• Dearness allowance
• House rent allowance
• Transport allowance
• Dress Allowance
• Government accommodation
• Central Government Health Scheme
• Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme
• National Pension System
• Unified Pension Scheme
• Old Pension Scheme
• Pension calculation
• CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021
• Retirement age in central government
• Department of Personnel and Training
• New tax regime
• Standard deduction
• Income tax for government employees
• Central government employees in India

External references

• Ministry of Home Affairs, Indian Police Service (Pay) Rules, 2016
• Ministry of Home Affairs
• Department of Personnel and Training
• Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy
• Union Public Service Commission
• Department of Expenditure
• Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority

References

1. Indian Police Service (Pay) Rules, 2016, notified as G.S.R. 910(E) on 23 September 2016 under section 3(1) of the All India Services Act, 1951, deemed in force from 1 January 2016: Rules 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13, Schedule I, and Schedule II Parts (A), (B) and (C).
2. Indian Administrative Service (Pay) Rules, 2016, G.S.R. 870(E) dated 8 September 2016, Rule 3(1)(B) read with Rules 5(2), 5(5), 5(6), 5(7) and 5(8).
3. Department of Expenditure Resolution No. 1-2/2016-IC dated 25 July 2016, paragraph 14; Resolution dated 16 May 2017 revising the index of rationalisation for Level 13.
4. All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958, second proviso to Rule 1(2)(b), Rules 16(1), 16(1A) and 18(1)(b); Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 2021, G.S.R. 868(E) dated 20 December 2021, Rule 2(e).
5. All India Services (Compensatory Allowance) Rules, 1954, notification No. 20/1/54-AIS(II) dated 14 September 1954, Rules 2(b) and 3; All India Services (Conditions of Service, Residuary Matters) Rules, 1960, Rule 2; All India Services (Group Insurance) Rules, 1981.
6. Indian Police Service (Recruitment) Rules, 1954, rule 6A(2); Indian Police Service (Cadre) Rules, 1954, rule 9; Indian Police Service (Probation) Rules, 1954, rule 13; Indian Police Service (Regulation of Seniority) Rules, 1988, rule 3; Indian Police Service (Fixation of Cadre Strength) Regulations, 1955, Schedule, item 1.
7. Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 1/1(i)/2026-E.II(B) dated 22 April 2026 (dearness allowance at 60%); Office Memorandum No. 19051/1/2017-E.IV dated 2 August 2017 and dated 24 March 2025 (Dress Allowance); Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Office Memorandum No. S.11011/11/2016-CGHS(P)/EHS dated 9 January 2017 (CGHS subscription).
8. Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (Operationalisation of the Unified Pension Scheme under the National Pension System) Regulations, 2025, gazetted 19 March 2025; Department of Personnel and Training letter No. 25014/01/2025-AIS-II (Pension) dated 30 April 2025.
9. Department of Expenditure Resolution F. No. 01-01/2025-E.III(A) dated 3 November 2025 constituting the 8th Central Pay Commission; Union Public Service Commission Examination Notice No. 05/2026-CSE dated 4 February 2026.