Tenure Allowance

The Tenure Allowance is paid to organised Group A service officers on a Central Staffing Scheme tenure, at 10 per cent of basic pay subject to a ceiling.

Updated 19 July 2026 · Reviewed by Salary-Calculator.in

The Tenure Allowance is an allowance paid to an officer of an organised Group A central service who is appointed to the Centre under the Central Staffing Scheme on a fixed tenure, in a post of Under Secretary, Deputy Secretary or Director. It compensates the officer for serving a tenure at the Centre away from the parent cadre, and it is paid at 10 per cent of basic pay subject to a monetary ceiling. It is the Central Staffing Scheme counterpart of the Deputation (Duty) Allowance , and an officer draws one or the other for a posting, not both.

The allowance belongs to the machinery by which the Government of India staffs its senior secretariat posts. Under the Central Staffing Scheme, officers of the organised Group A services are brought to the Centre for a tenure, to bring field experience into policy-making and to broaden the officers themselves, after which they revert to their parent cadres. The Tenure Allowance is the money attached to that arrangement for the officers who come in at the Under Secretary, Deputy Secretary and Director levels.

This article explains what the allowance is, the Central Staffing Scheme context that gives rise to it, who draws it and at which levels, the rate of 10 per cent of basic pay and the ceiling that caps it, how it relates to and differs from the Deputation (Duty) Allowance, where the loosely-used term “headquarters allowance” fits, and the tax position. It is a child of the allowances hub and is best read alongside the deputation for central government employees article.

The Central Staffing Scheme context

The Central Staffing Scheme is the arrangement under which the Government of India fills a large number of its middle and senior secretariat posts by drawing officers from the organised services on a tenure basis. An officer of an organised Group A service, having served in the field and in their own cadre, is empanelled and appointed to a post at the Centre, typically as an Under Secretary, Deputy Secretary or Director, for a fixed number of years, and then returns to the parent cadre. The scheme is administered by the Department of Personnel and Training , which acts as the central personnel agency.

The purpose is twofold. It gives the secretariat officers with direct experience of implementation, so that policy is informed by the field, and it gives the officers themselves exposure to policy-making at the Centre before they return to senior roles in their cadres. Because the posting is a tenure and not a permanent placement, and because the officer serves away from the parent cadre for its duration, it carries the same kind of cost and disruption that any deputation does, and the Tenure Allowance is the recognition of that.

Who draws it

The Tenure Allowance is drawn by officers of the organised Group A central services who hold posts under the Central Staffing Scheme at the Under Secretary , Deputy Secretary and Director levels at the Centre, on a tenure basis. It is specific to that arrangement. It is not a general allowance for every officer who happens to work at the Centre, and gazetted status alone does not qualify an officer for it; the qualification is holding one of these tenure posts under the scheme.

The distinction matters because the Centre is staffed in several ways. Some posts are filled by the Central Secretariat Service cadre itself, whose officers are permanent secretariat staff and not on tenure from an outside cadre. Others are filled by officers on ordinary deputation to ex-cadre posts. The Tenure Allowance is for the particular category of organised-service officers brought in under the Central Staffing Scheme for a tenure, which is why it is called a tenure allowance rather than a deputation or a secretariat allowance.

The rate and the ceiling

The Tenure Allowance is 10 per cent of the officer’s basic pay, subject to a monetary ceiling. The percentage is applied to basic pay, the pay drawn in the level of the pay matrix , and does not include dearness allowance or other allowances. Because it is a percentage capped by a ceiling, an officer draws 10 per cent of basic pay up to the ceiling, and for the more senior of the eligible levels the ceiling rather than the percentage is the operative limit.

The exact ceiling is set by the governing orders, and it is of the same order as the ceilings that apply to the Deputation (Duty) Allowance, since the two allowances compensate a similar thing. As with the deputation ceilings, a rupee ceiling of this kind is the sort that the 7th Central Pay Commission framework allows to rise in steps with dearness allowance, so that it does not stagnate; the live question at any revision is the ceiling rather than the 10 per cent rate, which has been stable. An officer working out the allowance should apply 10 per cent to the basic pay and then check it against the current ceiling for the level.

How it relates to the Deputation (Duty) Allowance

The Tenure Allowance is best understood next to the Deputation (Duty) Allowance , because the two are close relatives that apply to different situations. Both compensate an officer for serving away from the parent cadre, and both are a percentage of basic pay subject to a ceiling. The difference lies in the nature of the posting.

The Deputation (Duty) Allowance applies to an ordinary deputation to an ex-cadre post, and its rate turns on the change of station: 5 per cent of basic pay for a deputation within the same station, subject to a ceiling, and 10 per cent for one involving a change of station, subject to a higher ceiling. It also carries the important option between the allowance and the pay of the deputation post. The Tenure Allowance, by contrast, is the counterpart for an officer on a Central Staffing Scheme tenure at the Centre, at a flat 10 per cent of basic pay subject to a ceiling, tied to the tenure posting rather than to a change of station.

The key point is that the two are not drawn together for the same posting. Where the Tenure Allowance applies, it takes the place of the Deputation (Duty) Allowance rather than being added to it, and which one applies depends on the nature of the posting under the governing rules. An officer on a CSS tenure draws the Tenure Allowance; an officer on an ordinary ex-cadre deputation draws the Deputation (Duty) Allowance. The deputation for central government employees article covers the wider system within which both sit.

The tenure, and reversion to the cadre

The tenure is central to the allowance, as its name says. An officer comes to the Centre under the scheme for a fixed period, serves the tenure, and then reverts to the parent cadre, where their seniority and career progression continue. While on the tenure the officer remains a member of the parent cadre, and the same protective devices that apply to a deputationist, such as the proforma promotion under the Next Below Rule so that the officer is not disadvantaged by being away when juniors are promoted, apply to the officer on a Central Staffing Scheme tenure as well.

Because the posting is time-bound, the Tenure Allowance is drawn for the duration of the tenure and stops on reversion. It is not a permanent addition to the officer’s pay but a compensation for the period at the Centre, which is consistent with its being tied to the tenure post rather than to the officer’s substantive grade in the parent cadre.

Where “headquarters allowance” fits

The term “headquarters allowance” is sometimes used loosely for the compensation of an officer posted to a headquarters organisation, and it is worth being clear that it is not a separate, distinct allowance with its own rate. An officer posted to a headquarters organisation is being compensated through one of the established allowances: the Deputation (Duty) Allowance where the posting is an ordinary deputation to an ex-cadre post at the headquarters of another organisation, or the Tenure Allowance where the posting is a Central Staffing Scheme tenure at the Centre. The headquarters allowance reference collects this together; the substantive payments are the two allowances described here and in the deputation article, applied according to the nature of the posting.

This is a common feature of the allowances vocabulary, where an informal or descriptive term is used for what is, in the rules, one of a small number of defined allowances. The safe course is to identify the actual posting, an ordinary deputation or a Central Staffing Scheme tenure, and then apply the correct allowance and its rate and ceiling, rather than to look for a distinct “headquarters allowance” with figures of its own.

The tax position

The Tenure Allowance is part of salary income and is fully taxable in the ordinary way. There is no specific exemption for it: the Section 10(14) exemptions under Rule 2BB of the Income-tax Rules are for defined field, travel and duty allowances, and a tenure or deputation-type allowance does not fall within them. It is therefore added to gross salary and taxed at the applicable slab under both the old and the new tax regimes, with tax deducted at source, and the default new regime under Section 115BAC in any case withdraws the great majority of the Section 10(14) exemptions.

Because the officers who draw it are at the Under Secretary, Deputy Secretary and Director levels, the allowance sits on a substantial basic pay, so the rupee amount is more significant than that of the small fixed allowances, and it is a real part of the taxable salary for the tenure. For how allowances feed into the computation and the choice of regime, see income tax for government employees and old versus new tax regime .

The 8th CPC outlook

The Tenure Allowance is a long-standing feature of the Central Staffing Scheme, retained through successive pay commissions at 10 per cent of basic pay with a ceiling, and it answers a continuing need, since the Centre will continue to draw officers from the organised services on tenure. Whether the 8th Central Pay Commission revises the ceiling, changes the 10 per cent rate, or restructures the way tenure postings are compensated is not known, and no post-8th-CPC figure can be stated as fact until that commission reports and its recommendations are accepted. Until then the position is 10 per cent of basic pay, subject to the ceiling in the governing orders, for an organised Group A service officer on a Central Staffing Scheme tenure at the Centre.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the Tenure Allowance?

It is an allowance paid to an officer of an organised Group A central service who is appointed to the Centre under the Central Staffing Scheme on a fixed tenure, in a post of Under Secretary, Deputy Secretary or Director. It compensates the officer for serving a tenure at the Centre away from the parent cadre, and it is paid at 10 per cent of basic pay subject to a monetary ceiling.

How much is the Tenure Allowance?

It is 10 per cent of the officer’s basic pay, subject to a monetary ceiling. Because it is a percentage of pay with a cap, the officer draws 10 per cent of basic pay up to the ceiling, and the ceiling rather than the percentage is the operative limit for the more senior levels. The exact ceiling is set by the governing orders.

Who is eligible for the Tenure Allowance?

It is drawn by officers of the organised Group A central services who hold posts under the Central Staffing Scheme at the Under Secretary, Deputy Secretary or Director level at the Centre, on a tenure basis. It is specific to that Central Staffing Scheme tenure posting; it is not a general allowance for every officer at the Centre, and gazetted status alone does not qualify an officer for it.

How is the Tenure Allowance different from the Deputation (Duty) Allowance?

Both compensate service away from the parent cadre, but they apply to different situations. The Deputation (Duty) Allowance applies to an ordinary deputation to an ex-cadre post, at 5 or 10 per cent of basic pay depending on the change of station, subject to its own ceilings. The Tenure Allowance is the counterpart for an officer on a Central Staffing Scheme tenure at the Centre, at 10 per cent of basic pay subject to a ceiling. An officer draws one or the other for a given posting, not both.

Is the Tenure Allowance drawn with the deputation allowance?

No. The two are not drawn together for the same posting. The Tenure Allowance is the compensation for a Central Staffing Scheme tenure posting, and where it applies it takes the place of the Deputation (Duty) Allowance rather than being added to it. Which one applies depends on the nature of the posting under the governing rules.

Is the Tenure Allowance taxable?

Yes. It 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, under both the old and the new tax regimes.

External references

References

Report of the Seventh Central Pay Commission (November 2015), Chapter 8 (Allowances): review of the Tenure Allowance for Central Staffing Scheme officers.
Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure, Resolution No. 11-1/2016-IC dated 6 July 2017: Government decision on the 7th CPC allowances, including the Tenure Allowance at 10 per cent of basic pay subject to a ceiling.
Department of Personnel and Training instructions on the Central Staffing Scheme and the Tenure Allowance for officers of the organised Group A services holding Under Secretary, Deputy Secretary and Director posts at the Centre.
Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum on Deputation (Duty) Allowance dated 24 November 2017 (for the related deputation framework and ceilings).
Income-tax Act 1961, Section 10(14) read with Rule 2BB of the Income-tax Rules, and Section 115BAC (the new tax regime), on the taxability of allowances outside the notified exemptions.