7th Pay Commission Latest News Today: Ahead of Holi festival, here comes a piece of good news for the government employees. The Centre is offering them Special Festival Advance Scheme before Holi festival. Part of this scheme, the government employees will receive an advance of Rs 10,000 without any interest. Notably, the last date to avail the cash under Special Festival Advance Scheme is March 31, 2021. This time it is more special as this provision of Festival Advance Scheme was not there when 7th Pay commission was implemented. Under 6th pay commission, there was provision of Rs 4500 as advance scheme for the government employees.
Another interesting fact is that it is an interest-free advance and can be returned in 10 easy installments. All the government employees will be given this advanced in the form of prepaid RuPay card. Moreover, the state governments have the option of offering festive advance on the lines of festive advance provided by the union government.
According to report on Zee Business, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had earlier said that the advance that is being given for festivals will be preloaded. She had also added that the money will already be there in the ATM of government employees and all they need to do is to spend it.
The decision to give the government employees an advance of Rs 10,000 is included in the Seventh Pay Commission. The government employees must keep in mind that this advance is for this financial year and the money received will have to be spent before 31 March 2021.
Giving big relief to the central government employees and retired pensioners, the Centre has decided to restore their three pending installments of Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) from July.