Personal pay

Personal pay is additional pay under FR 9(23) that saves a central government servant from a loss of substantive pay. Who grants it, and what absorbs it.

Updated 10 September 2026

Personal pay is additional pay granted to a central government servant under Fundamental Rule 9(23), either to save the servant from a loss of substantive pay in a permanent post caused by a revision of pay or by a non-disciplinary reduction of pay, or in exceptional circumstances on other personal considerations. It attaches to the person, not to the post.

Two features decide almost every question about it. Personal pay is pay, because FR 9(21)(a)(ii) puts it inside the definition alongside overseas pay, technical pay and special pay, but it is not substantive pay, because FR 9(28) excludes it by name. And it usually does not last, because the instrument that grants it usually directs that it be absorbed in future increases of pay.

That absorption is where the common account of personal pay goes wrong. FR 9(23) is a definition and carries no absorption clause, and no Fundamental Rule states a general one. The direction comes from the sanction: Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 12/1/2016-Estt.(Pay-I) dated 31 March 2017 grants it to be absorbed in future increments, Rules 7(7) and 7(9) of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016 grant it to be absorbed in future increases in pay, and the special increment for the small family norm sanctioned on 4 December 1979 was fixed for the rest of service instead.

The commonest grant today is on a transfer to a lower post at the servant’s own request, where the pay matrix offers no cell equal to the pay already drawn.

The definition in Fundamental Rule 9(23)

FR 9(23) defines personal pay as additional pay granted to a government servant under one of two limbs. Clause (a) covers a grant made to save the servant from a loss of substantive pay in respect of a permanent post other than a tenure post, due to a revision of pay or to any reduction of that substantive pay otherwise than as a disciplinary measure. Clause (b) covers a grant made in exceptional circumstances on other personal considerations.

Three limits are built into clause (a). The loss must be a loss of substantive pay, so a fall in officiating pay when an officiating arrangement ends is outside it. The post must be a permanent post and not a tenure post. And the reduction must be something other than a disciplinary penalty, which keeps a reduction in rank under Rule 11 of the CCS (CCA) Rules, 1965 out of the protective limb entirely.

Clause (b) is a residual power and is used sparingly, for reasons set out below. A Note under FR 9(23) requires every proposed grant under clause (b) to be referred to the Government in the Finance Department through the administrative department concerned.

Personal pay is pay, and it is not substantive pay

FR 9(21)(a)(ii) lists overseas pay, technical pay, special pay and personal pay inside the definition of pay, so personal pay is pay for every purpose that turns on pay unless a rule says otherwise. FR 9(28) then defines substantive pay as pay other than special pay, personal pay or emoluments specially classed as pay under FR 9(21)(a)(iii). The two rules together explain most of the odd results below: personal pay is counted where a rule speaks of pay, and dropped where a rule speaks of substantive pay or of basic pay.

The proviso to FR 22(I) shows the exclusion at work. Where a servant is appointed to a post in the same time scale, or to a post on an identical time scale, the initial pay is not to be less than the pay drawn on the last occasion, and special pay and personal pay are expressly left out of that protected figure. A servant carrying Rs. 1,500 of personal pay therefore takes forward the cell, not the cell plus the protection.

The pension side works the same way. Rule 31 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 defines emoluments as the basic pay drawn on the date of retirement, meaning the cell of the pay matrix on which the employee retires, with non-practising allowance where admissible. Personal pay is not part of that cell.

Absorption comes from the granting order, not from FR 9(23)

Nothing in the Fundamental Rules absorbs personal pay. FR 9(23) defines the term and stops there, so the rate at which a personal pay shrinks, and whether it shrinks at all, is a question about the instrument that sanctioned it. Four instruments in current use answer it the same way and one historical order answered it the opposite way.

The Office Memorandum of 31 March 2017 grants the step-down difference “to be absorbed in future Increment(s)”. Rule 7(7) of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016 grants personal pay on the 2016 migration to be absorbed in future increases in pay, and Rule 7(9) carries an older personal pay forward on the same terms. The proviso to Rule 8 uses the identical formula for the transitional direct recruit. Absorption under all four is arithmetic rather than discretion: the personal pay falls by the amount of each increase in pay and disappears when the increases equal it.

The counter-example is the special increment for the small family norm, sanctioned with effect from 4 December 1979. It was granted in the form of personal pay, equal to the amount of the next increment then due, and it was fixed at that amount for the rest of the servant’s career rather than absorbed. An employee reading a personal pay entry in an old service book has to read the sanction to know which of the two kinds it is.

Transfer to a lower post at own request

This is the grant a serving employee is most likely to meet. FR 15(a) allows the transfer of a government servant from one post to another, and bars a substantive transfer to a lower post except on account of inefficiency or misbehaviour, or on the servant’s own written request. The method of fixation is not in FR 15, and it is not in Fundamental Rule 22 either.

Paragraph 2 of Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 12/1/2016-Estt.(Pay-I) dated 31 March 2017, effective from 1 January 2016, supplies it in three limbs. Pay is fixed at the cell in the lower Level equal to the pay drawn in the higher Level held on a regular basis. Where the lower Level has no such cell, pay is fixed at the cell next below and the difference is granted as personal pay, to be absorbed in future increments. Where the maximum of the lower Level is itself lower than the pay drawn, FR 22(I)(a)(3) restricts the pay to that maximum, and clause (a)(3) does nothing else: it caps, and it grants no personal pay.

A worked example shows how short the protection is. An employee at cell 2 of Level 10 draws Rs. 57,800 and asks in writing for a Level 9 post. Level 9 has no cell at Rs. 57,800, because cell 3 is Rs. 56,300 and cell 4 is Rs. 58,000, so pay is fixed at Rs. 56,300 with personal pay of Rs. 1,500. The first annual increment in Level 9 moves the cell to Rs. 58,000, an increase of Rs. 1,700, which is more than the personal pay, so the whole Rs. 1,500 is absorbed at once and the employee draws Rs. 58,000 and nothing more. The cells are from Part A of the Schedule to the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016 as substituted by G.S.R. 592(E) dated 15 June 2017; the absorption arithmetic is a salary-calculator.in computation from paragraph 2 of the Office Memorandum.

The wider set of routes, including the technical resignation case and the position on reversion from an officiating post, is treated in pay protection and in pay fixation.

Personal pay under the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016

A pay commission revision is the second source of personal pay, and it is the one that reaches the largest number of employees at once. Rule 7(7) of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016 provides that where the existing emoluments of an employee exceed the revised emoluments on 1 January 2016, the difference is allowed as personal pay, to be absorbed in future increases in pay. Rule 7(9) deals with an employee who was already drawing personal pay before the notification of 25 July 2016 and lets the excess over the revised emoluments continue as personal pay on the same terms.

The proviso to Rule 8 covers the transitional direct recruit. A person appointed on or after 1 January 2016 but before 25 July 2016, whose pay had already been fixed in the pre-revised structure at emoluments above the first cell of the applicable Level, keeps the difference as personal pay to be absorbed in future increments. Rule 8 otherwise places a direct recruit at the first cell of the Level, Rs. 18,000 in Level 1 and Rs. 56,100 in Level 10, with no arithmetic to do.

Rule 12 protects an officer on Central deputation. Where the pay of an officer posted to the Central Government under the Central Staffing Scheme, fixed either under these Rules or under the instructions governing the deputation post, is lower than the pay the officer would have drawn in the parent cadre, the difference is protected as personal pay. Rule 12 was amended by Department of Expenditure notification No. 1-2/2016-IC dated 15 June 2017 with effect from 1 January 2016.

Personal pay and the deputation (duty) allowance

An employee on deputation may carry personal pay, but the allowance is never computed on it. The Note below paragraph 6.1.6 of the Department of Personnel and Training consolidated guidelines, Office Memorandum No. DOPT-1711629234974 dated 28 March 2024, defines basic pay for this purpose as the pay drawn from time to time in the Level of the pay matrix of the post held substantively in the parent cadre, and excludes any other type of pay such as personal pay.

Paragraph 4.1 of the same guidelines gives the deputationist an option. The employee draws either the pay in the Level of the ex-cadre post, or the basic pay in the parent cadre plus the deputation (duty) allowance on that basic pay plus personal pay if any. The personal pay is added to the packet at face value; no allowance accrues on it.

The FR 19 exception

Personal pay under clause (a) is the one thing that may lawfully carry a servant’s pay past the maximum sanctioned for the post. The proviso to Fundamental Rule 19 bars an increase of pay beyond the pay sanctioned for the post without the sanction of an authority competent to create a post in the same cadre on a rate of pay equal to the pay when increased, and it excepts, in terms, personal pay granted in the circumstances defined in FR 9(23)(a).

The exception is limited to the protective limb. A grant under clause (b), on personal considerations, carries no exception from FR 19 and needs the sanction the proviso describes. That difference is one reason the protective limb does nearly all the work in practice.

Grants in exceptional circumstances under clause (b)

Clause (b) grants are controlled at the level of the Government, not the ministry. The Note under FR 9(23) requires all cases in which it is proposed to grant personal pay under clause (b) to be referred to the Government in the Finance Department through the administrative department concerned, and states that no case will be entertained which is not of an entirely exceptional character.

The practical effect is that an employee should not expect personal pay to be sanctioned on personal hardship. The personal pay that appears on a pay slip almost always came from a fixation order under clause (a), where the grant is general and needs no separate sanction, rather than from an individual proposal under clause (b).

What personal pay does not earn

Personal pay is paid at its face value and generates nothing further. Rule 3(x) of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016 defines basic pay in the revised structure as the pay drawn in the prescribed Level of the pay matrix and nothing else, and dearness allowance, house rent allowance and transport allowance are each computed on that figure. A personal pay of Rs. 1,500 therefore adds Rs. 1,500 to the monthly packet and not a rupee more.

The retirement side follows the same definition. Rule 31 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 measures emoluments for pension and for gratuity by the basic pay drawn on the date of retirement, so personal pay raises neither. Nor does it move the increment: Rule 9 of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016 grants the annual increment as movement to the next vertical cell of the Level, which is computed on the cell alone and takes no account of a personal pay riding above it.

Re-employment of a pensioner

On re-employment the treatment reverses, and personal pay of the protective kind is counted in full. Order 3(2) of the CCS (Fixation of Pay of Re-employed Pensioners) Orders, 1986, as amended on 1 May 2017, defines pre-retirement pay as the substantive pay last drawn, then qualifies it clause by clause. Officiating pay counts only where the officer officiated continuously for at least ten months before retirement or held the post on a regular basis, and special pay under FR 9(25) is on the same ten-month test.

Personal pay granted for a loss of substantive pay, and the special increment granted for promoting the small family norm, count irrespective of the ten months, because they stand on the footing of substantive pay. Every other kind of personal pay is treated like officiating pay and has to clear the ten-month test. The three fixation routes themselves are set out in pay fixation on re-employment.

The family planning special increment

The largest population of personal pay the central government ever created came from the family planning incentive, and it was the exception to absorption. From 4 December 1979 an employee who underwent sterilisation drew a special increment in the form of personal pay, equal to the amount of the next increment due at the time of the grant, held at that figure for the rest of service and not absorbed in future increases of pay. From 21 July 1999 the incentive was restricted to employees with not more than two living children.

Office Memorandum dated 24 September 2008 recast the incentive as a fixed monthly family planning allowance keyed to grade pay, which took it out of the definition of pay altogether. Paragraph 3 of Office Memorandum No. 12(4)/2016-E.III(A) dated 7 July 2017 then abolished the allowance with effect from 1 July 2017, on the 7th Central Pay Commission’s recommendation. Employees who retired before 2008 can still find the older personal pay reflected in their emoluments record.

Personal pay compared with the neighbouring additions to pay

Four additions to pay are defined within a few clauses of each other in FR 9, and fixation orders confuse them often enough that the distinctions are worth stating in one place.

Addition	Defining rule	Attaches to	Counts as pay	Typical life
Personal pay	FR 9(23)	The individual	Yes, FR 9(21)(a)(ii)	Absorbed in future increases, unless the sanction says otherwise
Special pay	FR 9(25)	The post, or the servant holding it	Yes, FR 9(21)(a)(ii)	Continues while the arduous duty or added responsibility does
Substantive pay	FR 9(28)	The substantive post	It is pay, and it excludes both of the above	Continues while the servant holds the post substantively
Honorarium	FR 9(9), sanctioned under FR 46(b)	The special work	No, it is outside FR 9(21)	Ends with the occasional or intermittent work

The comparison that matters most on a pay slip is the first against the second. A special pay is granted because the duties of the post are specially arduous or carry a specific addition to the work or responsibility, and it survives as long as those duties do. A personal pay is granted because a figure would otherwise fall, and it is normally engineered to disappear.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is personal pay?

Personal pay is additional pay granted to a government servant under Fundamental Rule 9(23), either to save the servant from a loss of substantive pay in respect of a permanent post other than a tenure post, caused by a revision of pay or by a reduction of that substantive pay otherwise than as a disciplinary measure, or in exceptional circumstances on other personal considerations. It attaches to the individual and not to the post, and it is included in the definition of pay in FR 9(21)(a)(ii).

What absorbs personal pay?

The order that grants it. Fundamental Rule 9(23) defines personal pay and says nothing about absorption, and no Fundamental Rule sets a general absorption rule, so the sanction has to be read. Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 12/1/2016-Estt.(Pay-I) dated 31 March 2017 grants personal pay on a step-down to be absorbed in future increments. Rules 7(7) and 7(9) of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016 grant it to be absorbed in future increases in pay. The special increment for the small family norm sanctioned on 4 December 1979 ran the other way and was fixed for the rest of service.

When is personal pay granted on transfer to a lower post?

When a government servant is transferred to a lower Level at their own written request under FR 15(a) and the lower Level has no cell equal to the pay already drawn. Paragraph 2 of Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 12/1/2016-Estt.(Pay-I) dated 31 March 2017, effective from 1 January 2016, fixes the pay at the equal cell where one exists, at the cell next below where none does with the difference granted as personal pay to be absorbed in future increments, and at the maximum of the lower Level where that maximum is itself lower than the pay drawn. FR 22(I)(a)(3) supplies only that last ceiling and grants no personal pay.

Is personal pay part of pay?

Yes. FR 9(21)(a)(ii) lists overseas pay, technical pay, special pay and personal pay within the definition of pay, so personal pay is pay for every purpose that turns on pay unless a rule provides otherwise. It is not substantive pay: FR 9(28) defines substantive pay as pay other than special pay, personal pay or emoluments specially classed as pay, which is why the proviso to FR 22(I) leaves personal pay out of the pay drawn on a previous occasion.

Does personal pay attract dearness allowance?

No. Dearness allowance, house rent allowance and transport allowance are computed on basic pay, and Rule 3(x) of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016 defines basic pay in the revised structure as the pay drawn in the prescribed Level of the pay matrix and nothing else. Personal pay sits outside that cell figure, so it is paid at its face value and carries no dearness allowance with it.

Does personal pay count for pension and gratuity?

No. Rule 31 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 defines emoluments for pension and gratuity as the basic pay drawn on the date of retirement, meaning the cell of the pay matrix on which the employee retires, together with non-practising allowance where admissible. Personal pay is not part of that cell, so it does not raise the pension, the retirement gratuity or the family pension.

Can personal pay take pay above the maximum of the post?

Yes, and only personal pay of the protective kind can. The proviso to Fundamental Rule 19 bars any increase of pay beyond the pay sanctioned for the post without the sanction of an authority competent to create a post in the same cadre on that higher rate, and it expressly excepts personal pay granted in the circumstances defined in FR 9(23)(a). Personal pay granted under clause (b), on personal considerations, gets no such exception.

Who sanctions personal pay in exceptional circumstances?

The Government. The Note under FR 9(23) requires every case in which a grant of personal pay under clause (b) is proposed to be referred to the Government in the Finance Department through the administrative department concerned, and states that no case will be entertained which is not of an entirely exceptional character. Almost all personal pay in central government service therefore arises under clause (a), through a fixation order rather than through an individual sanction.

What happens to personal pay when pay is revised by a pay commission?

The revised pay rules carry it forward as personal pay. Rule 7(7) of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016 grants personal pay where the existing emoluments exceed the revised emoluments, to be absorbed in future increases in pay. Rule 7(9) allows personal pay already being drawn before 25 July 2016 to continue as personal pay to the extent it exceeds the revised emoluments. The proviso to Rule 8 does the same for a direct recruit appointed between 1 January 2016 and 25 July 2016 whose existing emoluments exceeded the first cell of the Level.

Does personal pay count towards the deputation (duty) allowance?

No. The Note below paragraph 6.1.6 of the Department of Personnel and Training consolidated guidelines, Office Memorandum No. DOPT-1711629234974 dated 28 March 2024, defines basic pay for the allowance as the pay drawn in the Level of the post held substantively in the parent cadre and excludes any other type of pay such as personal pay. Under paragraph 4.1 an employee who elects parent-cadre pay draws the deputation (duty) allowance on that basic pay, plus personal pay if any, with no allowance computed on the personal pay itself.

Does personal pay count on re-employment after retirement?

Yes, and it is treated better than officiating pay. Order 3(2) of the CCS (Fixation of Pay of Re-employed Pensioners) Orders, 1986, as amended on 1 May 2017, counts personal pay granted for a loss of substantive pay, and the special increment granted for promoting the small family norm, in pre-retirement pay irrespective of the ten-month test that governs officiating pay and special pay under FR 9(25). Every other kind of personal pay is treated like officiating pay and needs the ten months.

What is the difference between personal pay and special pay?

Personal pay under FR 9(23) protects an individual against a loss of substantive pay and moves with the person. Special pay under FR 9(25) is an addition to the emoluments of a post or of a government servant granted in consideration of the specially arduous nature of the duties or of a specific addition to the work or responsibility, and it belongs to the post. Both are pay under FR 9(21)(a)(ii) and both are excluded from substantive pay by FR 9(28), but a special pay continues as long as the duties do, while a personal pay usually shrinks with every increment.

Was the family planning allowance a personal pay?

In its first form, yes. The incentive introduced with effect from 4 December 1979 was a special increment granted in the shape of personal pay, equal to the amount of the next increment then due, fixed at that amount for the rest of service and expressly not absorbed in future increases of pay. Office Memorandum dated 24 September 2008 replaced it with a fixed monthly allowance keyed to grade pay, and paragraph 3 of Office Memorandum No. 12(4)/2016-E.III(A) dated 7 July 2017 abolished the allowance from 1 July 2017.

External references

References

Fundamental Rule 9(23), Compilation of the Fundamental Rules and Supplementary Rules, Part I: definition of personal pay, and the Note requiring cases under clause (b) to be referred to the Government in the Finance Department through the administrative department concerned.
Fundamental Rules 9(21)(a)(ii), 9(25) and 9(28): the inclusion of personal pay in the definition of pay, the definition of special pay, and the exclusion of personal pay from substantive pay.
Fundamental Rule 19, proviso: pay not to be increased beyond the pay sanctioned for the post without the sanction of an authority competent to create a post in the same cadre, excepting personal pay granted in the circumstances defined in FR 9(23)(a).
Fundamental Rule 15(a) and the proviso to Fundamental Rule 22(I), with FR 22(I)(a)(3): transfer to a lower post on written request, the exclusion of special pay and personal pay from the pay drawn on the last occasion, and the ceiling of the maximum of the lower time scale.
Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 12/1/2016-Estt.(Pay-I) dated 31 March 2017, paragraph 2, effective 1 January 2016: fixation on transfer to a lower Level at own request, at the equal cell or the cell next below with the difference as personal pay to be absorbed in future increments.
Central Civil Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016, Rules 3(x), 7(7), 7(9), 9, 12 and the proviso to Rule 8, with the Schedule as substituted by G.S.R. 592(E) dated 15 June 2017, and Department of Expenditure notification No. 1-2/2016-IC dated 15 June 2017 amending Rule 12.
Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 2021, Rule 31: emoluments for pension and gratuity.
Central Civil Services (Fixation of Pay of Re-employed Pensioners) Orders, 1986, Order 3(2), as amended on 1 May 2017: personal pay in pre-retirement pay.
Department of Personnel and Training consolidated guidelines on deputation, Office Memorandum No. DOPT-1711629234974 dated 28 March 2024, paragraphs 4.1 and 6.1.6: the option, and basic pay excluding personal pay.
Ministry of Finance order dated 4 December 1979 granting a special increment in the form of personal pay for adoption of the small family norm, the Office Memorandum dated 24 September 2008 converting it into an allowance, and paragraph 3 of Office Memorandum No. 12(4)/2016-E.III(A) dated 7 July 2017 abolishing the allowance from 1 July 2017.