7th Pay Commission Committee Report | Special Forces Allowance

7th Pay Commission Committee Report | Special Forces Allowance 

Special Forces Allowance (Para 8.10.50, 8.10.68)

Existing Provisions: Granted to Special Forces of Indian Army and Indian Air Force, at par with Indian Navy‟s marine commandos, as under:

Category	Per month rate (in ₹ )
Brigadier and above and equivalent	15750
Major to Colonel and equivalent	21000
Captain and equivalent	16500
Lieutenant and equivalent	13500
JCOs and equivalent	12600
Havaldars and below and equivalent	10500

Recommendations of 7th CPC: The 7th CPC has recommended that this allowance may be paid as per Cell R1H1 of the newly proposed Risk and Hardship Matrix @₹25,000/- pm for level 9 and above and ₹17,300/- pm upto level 8.

Demand:

Defence Forces: Special Forces Allowance for officers in the ranks of Major to Colonel be raised to ₹31,500 pm (same as Siachen Allowance) as the rates of the allowance was at par with Siachen Allowance.

Analysis and Recommendations of the Committee:
According to the 7th CPC, no government employee faces as much risk/ hardship as the defence forces posted in Siachen. It is for this reason that RH –Max cell has been proposed. The demand has also not been supported by the MoD. Moreover, creating a separate category of officers between the level of Major and Colonel goes against the stated objective of the 7th CPC to simplify and rationalise the structure of allowances. MoD has not made any recommendations in this regard. The recommendations of the 7th CPC on Special Forces Allowance may, therefore, be accepted without any change.