Last Updated on February 13, 2021 at 12:05 pm
J&K administration has ultimately decided to recover rent from government employees who are enjoying the benefits of House Rent Allowance (HRA) and living in the government provided accommodation.
According to the sources, many government employees were wrongly paid HRA by the administration while they are using accommodation provided by the various government departments.
Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, Financial Commissioner, Finance Department, issued a circular clarifying that any Government employee who is allotted government accommodation or is in occupation of any government accommodation under any pretext, doesn’t deserve any HRA.
He further clarified that HRA of move employees is administered by Government Order dated October 1998. If any amount of HRA is paid to a government employee who is making use of government accommodation, then the amount of HRA will be recovered from him/her.
Circular further stated that all Government employees who have been provided Government accommodation by departments like Estates, R&B, Tourism Department, Forest etc have to pay rent of that accommodation facility.
The Circular further notes that all the Administrative Secretaries are also requested to direct the Drawing and Disbursing Officers under their control to make sure that HRA must be recovered which has been wrongly paid to government employees while they were in possession of government accommodation which is in total violation of rules.
The rental charges of the accommodation facility are deducted from the salary of government employees in monthly pay bills. Deduction of the catering charges of the move employees will also be done from their monthly pay bills, in case they have been provided hotel accommodation with free catering facilities.
