New Delhi: The dress allowance given to diplomats and elite Special Protection Group (SPG) officers, entrusted with the security of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former Prime Ministers and their families, have been hiked considerably. The move comes on the recommendation of the Seventh Central Pay Commission.
SPG officers during operational duties would get Rs 27,800 annually and on non-operational work would get Rs 21,225 a year as dress allowance, according to an official order.
Before the implementation of the panel’s recommendation, the officers were getting Rs 9,000 annually as uniform allowance.
The SPG guards Mr Modi, former PM Manmohan Singh, Cong-ress chief Sonia Gandhi, her children Rahul and Priyanka, among others.
The pay panel had recommended an annual grant of Rs 10,000 as dress allowance. The panel’s report was examined by a Committee on Allowances headed by finance secretary Ashok Lavasa.
The Seventh Central Pay Commission examined 196 allowances given to various categories of central government employees. “Outfit allowance, paid to Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officers and employees will continue to be provided as before, is enhanced by 50 per cent,” the order issued recently by the finance ministry said. The IFS officers were getting Rs 5,625 to Rs 10,625 per posting abroad, depending on their grade, as uniform allowance.
The uniform allowance given to all categories of employees was recommended to be abolished as a separate grant by the pay commission, that had recommended it is subsumed in the newly-proposed dress allowance.
Officers of the Indian Army, Air Force, Navy, central armed police forces, central police organisations and coast guards would get a dress allowance of Rs 20,000 per year. Except for the Navy and the Coast Guard, other officers were getting an initial annual allowance of Rs 21,000 and a renewal grant of Rs 4,500 (payable every three years). Military Nursing Service officers and those in Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli Police Service (DANIPS) would get Rs 15,000 annually as dress allowance.
