Night Duty Allowance

Night Duty Allowance pays central staff for duty between 22:00 and 06:00 at an hourly rate of (basic pay plus DA) divided by 200, up to a Rs. 43,600 ceiling.

Updated 17 July 2026 · Reviewed by Salary-Calculator.in

Night Duty Allowance (NDA) is the allowance paid to a central government employee for duty performed between 22:00 and 06:00. Under the 7th Central Pay Commission decision it is worked out by giving a uniform weightage of 10 minutes for every hour of night duty, at an hourly rate equal to the employee’s basic pay plus dearness allowance divided by 200, subject to a ceiling of Rs. 43,600 of basic pay a month. It is administered under the Department of Personnel and Training rules, by Office Memorandum No. A-27016/02/2017-Estt.(AL) dated 13 July 2020, with effect from 1 July 2017.

This article explains the allowance in full: what night duty is and the weightage that values it, the hourly-rate formula and the Rs. 43,600 ceiling, the shift to an individual per-employee calculation and the court rulings that forced it, worked examples, the rounding rules for industrial employees, the conditions and the supervisor’s certificate, the way the ceiling excludes much of the night-working workforce, and the tax position.

NDA is one of the few 7th Central Pay Commission allowances that was reworked rather than abolished, and its story is unusual: the rules that govern it today were shaped as much by litigation in the tribunals and the courts as by the pay commission, and the result is a formula tied to each employee’s own current pay rather than a flat grade rate.

What night duty is, and the weightage

Night duty is duty performed between 22:00 and 06:00. The idea behind the allowance is that an hour worked in the night is harder than an hour worked in the day, so it should be valued at more than an hour. The mechanism for that is a weightage: a uniform weightage of 10 minutes is given for every hour of night duty performed. An hour of night duty therefore counts as one hour and ten minutes for the purpose of the allowance, and six hours of night duty yield an extra weighted hour.

The weightage is uniform, meaning the same 10 minutes an hour applies to every eligible employee regardless of grade or department. It converts the physical hours of night work into a slightly larger number of weighted hours, and the allowance is then paid on those weighted hours at the hourly rate set out below.

Where the working hours of a post have already been fixed after taking the night weightage into account, no further NDA is admissible, because the compensation is already built into the roster. This prevents the same night work from being paid for twice, once through the roster and again through the allowance.

Where night duty allowance is drawn

NDA is not a general allowance for staying late; it belongs to the parts of government that genuinely run through the night. The establishments where eligible staff draw it include:

The Railways, the largest single block, where running staff, station staff, control-office staff, signal and telecommunication staff and workshop staff work rostered night shifts to keep trains moving round the clock.
The Department of Posts, where the night sorting of mail and the Railway Mail Service run overnight shifts.
The defence production establishments, the ordnance factories and their successor undertakings, where three-shift working is common.
Government presses and the mints, and other industrial establishments that run continuous production.
Hospitals and dispensaries, ports, airports, customs and immigration posts, and control rooms, where round-the-clock cover is unavoidable.

In each case the common feature is a genuine, rostered requirement to work between 22:00 and 06:00, certified as essential, rather than an employee’s own choice to work at night. NDA continues for the categories in these establishments that were already in receipt of it, and the 2020 order rationalised the rate rather than widening the field of who is eligible.

The hourly rate and the Rs. 43,600 ceiling

Two figures govern the money: the hourly rate and the pay ceiling.

The hourly rate of NDA is the sum of the employee’s basic pay and dearness allowance, divided by 200:

Hourly rate of NDA = (Basic pay + Dearness allowance) / 200

The basic pay and dearness allowance used are those prevalent under the 7th Central Pay Commission, that is the figures the employee actually draws. Because the divisor is a fixed 200, the rate rises automatically as basic pay climbs through increments and as the dearness allowance rate rises, so it keeps pace with pay in a way that a frozen figure would not.

The ceiling is a ceiling of basic pay for entitlement, set at Rs. 43,600 a month. An employee whose basic pay is more than Rs. 43,600 is not entitled to NDA at all. This is an eligibility ceiling, not merely a cap on the amount: crossing it removes the allowance rather than freezing it. The ceiling is the most contested feature of the scheme, discussed below.

The individual calculation and the court rulings

The way NDA is computed changed fundamentally, and the change came through the courts as much as through the pay commission.

Earlier, the rate of NDA was broad-banded, especially in the Railways: every employee at a given level of grade pay was given the same NDA rate, arrived at by taking the average of the minimum and maximum of the whole pay band. The 7th Central Pay Commission found this incorrect. The running pay bands had been kept deliberately wide by the 6th Central Pay Commission to avoid stagnation, so using the two extremities of a wide band to compute a single average rate did not reflect what any individual actually earned.

Litigation had already pushed in the same direction. In the ordnance factories under the Ordnance Factory Board , the Central Administrative Tribunal, Jodhpur Bench, held by its order of 5 November 2009 that NDA must be paid on the current pay of the employee deployed for night duty, not on an outdated flat rate. The Union of India’s appeals against that order were dismissed by the High Court of Rajasthan on 1 August 2011 and by the Supreme Court on 8 May 2012. The Ministry of Defence then issued instructions in 2015 to compute NDA on current pay, and the accounts authorities framed the corresponding formula.

The 2020 order settled the position for all departments. The amount of NDA is now worked out separately for each employee, depending on the basic pay the employee is drawing on the date of performing the night duty, and the old practice of giving the same rate to everyone with a particular grade pay was discontinued. So two employees at the same level but on different cells of the pay matrix , or drawing different pay after different lengths of service, receive different NDA, each computed on their own pay. Computerised payrolls make this individual calculation practical.

The 2020 order also swept away the older framework. It was issued in supersession of the Department of Personnel and Training Office Memoranda of 4 October 1989 and 5 May 1994, which had governed NDA under the earlier pay structures and which used the older grade-based method. Those orders had fixed the allowance against the pay scales of their day, and successive pay revisions had left the rates lagging, which is part of what drove the litigation. By rebuilding the rate as a formula tied to current pay and dearness allowance rather than a set of fixed figures, the 2020 order made the allowance self-updating: it moves with pay instead of needing a fresh order at every pay revision, so it should not fall out of date the way the 1989 and 1994 rates did. This is the same design logic that keeps the dearness allowance current, applied to a duty allowance.

Worked examples

The examples below apply the formula to a month with a set number of night-duty hours, using the employee’s own basic pay and a dearness allowance rate for illustration. The weighted hours are the actual night hours plus the 10-minute-an-hour weightage.

Basic pay	Basic pay + DA (illustrative)	Hourly rate, (BP+DA)/200	Entitled?
Rs. 21,700	Rs. 33,635	Rs. 168.18	Yes, within the ceiling
Rs. 35,400	Rs. 54,870	Rs. 274.35	Yes, within the ceiling
Rs. 43,600	Rs. 67,580	Rs. 337.90	Yes, at the ceiling
Rs. 44,900	Rs. 69,595	not applicable	No, basic pay exceeds Rs. 43,600

For an eligible employee, the monthly NDA is the hourly rate multiplied by the weighted hours of night duty in the month. Take the Level 2 employee on basic pay of Rs. 21,700, an hourly rate of Rs. 168.18, who performs 48 hours of night duty in a month. The weightage adds 10 minutes an hour, so 48 hours become 56 weighted hours, and the NDA for the month is about Rs. 168.18 multiplied by 56, roughly Rs. 9,418. The Level 7 employee on Rs. 44,900, by contrast, receives nothing, because the basic pay is above the Rs. 43,600 ceiling, however many nights are worked.

Rounding for industrial employees

For industrial employees the fractions of an hour are handled by specific rounding rules, because their night duty is counted from attendance rather than a fixed roster. Duty of less than half an hour is ignored; duty of half an hour or more but less than a full hour is reckoned as one full hour. The rounding is applied to the total night duty performed in the wage period, that is the month, and not day by day, so the fractions across the month are aggregated before rounding.

Certain periods are excluded from the qualifying night hours: the period of recess, shift leave, and overtime are all left out of the net hours of night work. And NDA is not admissible during overtime hours that fall within the night duty period, so an industrial employee who is on statutory overtime within the night hours is paid the overtime for those hours, not NDA on top of it. These rules keep the two allowances separate and prevent the same hour being paid twice.

Conditions and the supervisor’s certificate

NDA is not automatic even for eligible night-working staff. The night duty must be certified as essential: a certificate is given by the supervisor concerned that the night duty performed was necessary. This is the counterpart of the written-authorisation condition on overtime, and it exists to ensure that the allowance is paid for genuine operational night duty rostered by the department, not for time an employee chooses to spend in office at night.

The scheme extends to all employees across ministries and departments who were already in receipt of NDA, so it does not create new entitlement for categories that never had night duty, but continues and rationalises the allowance for those who do. The Railways applied the same formula and ceiling to its eligible non-gazetted staff by the Railway Board order RBE No. 83/2020 dated 29 September 2020.

The ceiling and who it leaves out

The Rs. 43,600 ceiling is the heart of the grievance over NDA. Because it is an eligibility ceiling on basic pay, it removes the allowance entirely from anyone earning above it, and under the 7th Central Pay Commission pay matrix that is a large share of the very staff who perform night duty.

In the Railways, the staff federations pointed out that the whole of Level 7, whose entry pay is Rs. 44,900, is above the ceiling and therefore excluded, along with about 90 per cent of Level 6, whose entry pay is Rs. 35,400, and about 60 per cent of Level 5 and below. That sweeps out exactly the operational categories that run the night railway, the station masters, the loco pilots, the goods guards and the senior technicians, many of whom are on Level 6 or Level 7 and perform regular night duty. A loco pilot who has earned a few increments past the ceiling stops drawing NDA even though the night work is unchanged. The demand to raise or remove the ceiling, so that NDA follows the night duty rather than the pay, has been pressed on this ground, and it is a matter for the 8th Central Pay Commission to consider; no revised ceiling can be stated as fact until an order issues.

The tax position

NDA is fully taxable. It is part of salary income in the year of receipt, no provision of the Income-tax Act exempts it, and it is taxed at the applicable slab rate with tax deducted at source, as the income tax for government employees article explains. It is treated like any other taxable allowance and added to gross salary.

For retirement benefits, NDA does not count. Like the overtime allowance and other duty allowances, it is not reckoned as emoluments for pension or gratuity, which rest on basic pay and dearness allowance. So the years of night duty that an operational employee performs, and the NDA drawn for them, add to the take-home pay through their working life but do not by themselves lift the pension, which is computed on the last drawn or average basic pay. NDA is compensation for the night element of a duty already owed, not an addition to pensionable pay.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is Night Duty Allowance and who gets it?

Night Duty Allowance (NDA) is the allowance paid to a central government employee for duty performed between 22:00 and 06:00. It is paid to non-gazetted staff who are required to work night shifts and whose basic pay is within the ceiling of Rs. 43,600 a month, subject to a supervisor’s certificate that the night duty is essential. It applies across ministries and departments to those who were already in receipt of NDA, and in the Railways, defence establishments and other departments that run night shifts.

How is Night Duty Allowance calculated?

Each hour of night duty carries a uniform weightage of 10 minutes, so six hours of night duty count as an extra weighted hour. The hourly rate of NDA is the sum of basic pay and dearness allowance divided by 200, using the basic pay and dearness allowance the employee draws on the date of the night duty. The rate is worked out individually for each employee, not as a common figure for a grade.

What is the pay ceiling for Night Duty Allowance?

The ceiling of basic pay for entitlement to NDA is Rs. 43,600 a month. An employee whose basic pay exceeds Rs. 43,600 is not entitled to NDA. This ceiling excludes a large part of the workforce that performs night duty, including all of Level 7 and most of Level 6, which is a standing grievance among railway and other operational staff.

Why is NDA now calculated per employee rather than by grade?

The 7th Central Pay Commission found the earlier practice of broad-banding, giving every employee at a grade the same NDA rate based on the average of the pay band, to be incorrect, because the pay bands were deliberately wide. Litigation reinforced this: the Central Administrative Tribunal and the higher courts held that NDA must be paid on the actual current pay of the employee performing the night duty, so the rate is now worked out individually.

Is Night Duty Allowance the same as Overtime Allowance?

No. Night Duty Allowance compensates the fact of working at night, between 22:00 and 06:00, through a weightage and an hourly rate, whereas Overtime Allowance compensates working beyond the normal hours. NDA was revised and retained by the 7th CPC decision of 2020, while Overtime Allowance was abolished from 1 July 2017 for all but operational staff and statutory industrial employees. An employee can perform night duty within normal hours, so the two are distinct.

How are fractions of an hour treated for industrial employees?

For industrial employees the weightage is worked out with rounding: duty of less than half an hour is ignored, and duty of half an hour or more but less than an hour is reckoned as a full hour. The rounding is done on the total night duty performed in the month, not day by day, and periods of recess, shift leave and overtime are excluded. NDA is not admissible during overtime hours that fall within the night hours.

Is Night Duty Allowance taxable?

Yes. NDA is part of salary income and is fully taxable at the applicable slab rate, with tax deducted at source. No provision of the Income-tax Act exempts it, so it is added to gross salary like any other taxable allowance.

External references

References

Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. A-27016/02/2017-Estt.(AL) dated 13 July 2020, “Implementation of the recommendations of the Seventh Central Pay Commission, Night Duty Allowance” (night duty 22:00 to 06:00; uniform weightage of 10 minutes an hour; hourly rate of basic pay plus dearness allowance divided by 200; basic pay ceiling Rs. 43,600; individual per-employee calculation; effective 1 July 2017), in supersession of the Office Memoranda dated 4 October 1989 and 5 May 1994.
Ministry of Railways (Railway Board) order RBE No. 83/2020 dated 29 September 2020 (application of the same NDA formula and Rs. 43,600 ceiling to eligible non-gazetted railway servants).
Central Administrative Tribunal, Jodhpur Bench, order dated 5 November 2009 on the computation of Night Duty Allowance on the current pay of the employee, upheld by the High Court of Rajasthan on 1 August 2011 and by the Supreme Court on 8 May 2012.
Ministry of Defence instructions of 8 May 2015 and the Principal Controller of Accounts (Factories), Kolkata, letter dated 29 May 2015 (computation of Night Duty Allowance on current pay for the ordnance factory employees in compliance with the court orders).
Report of the Seventh Central Pay Commission, November 2015, chapter on allowances (rejection of the broad-banded grade-based NDA rate in favour of a rate based on the individual employee’s pay).