Finance Ministry caps ad hoc bonus for central govt employees at Rs 7,000 ahead of festive season; here's how it's calculated

Ahead of festive season, the Centre on Tuesday fixed the ceiling for ad-hoc bonus for central government employees at Rs 7,000 for 2022-23. Union Finance Ministry's Department of Expenditure (DoE) said in a recent notification that central government employees in Group 'C' and all non-gazetted employees in Group 'B', not covered by any productivity-linked bonus scheme, will get an ad-hoc bonus equivalent to 30 days' wages for the accounting year 2022-23. 

The payment of ad hoc bonuses will also be made to eligible employees of Central Para Military Forces and Armed Forces. In order to qualify for the ad hoc bonuses, the employees should have been in service as on March 31, 2023 and have worked for minimum 6 months continuously in 2022-23. 

Casual labour who have worked in offices following a 6 days week for at least 240 days for each year for 3 years or more (206 days in each year for 3 years or more in the case offices observing 5-day week) will also be eligible for the ad-hoc bonus. The beneficiaries of ad-hoc bonus should not be covered by any productivity-linked bonus scheme.

"Pro-rata payment will be admissible to the eligible employees for a period of continuous service during the year from six months to a full year, the eligibility period being taken in terms of number of months of service (rounded off to the nearest number of months)," the notification read. 

How is ad-hoc bonus calculated? 

The ad-hoc bonus will be calculated on the basis of average emoluments or daily wages or calculation ceiling, whichever is lower. In order to calculate the ad-hoc bonus for one day, average emoluments in a year will be divided by 30.4 and multiplied by the number of days of bonus granted. 

For example, taking the calculation ceiling of monthly emoluments worth Rs 7,000 (where actual average emoluments exceed Rs 7,000/-), ad-hoc bonus for a period of 30 days would stack up to be Rs 7,000x30/30.4= Rs 6,907.84 (rounded off to Rs 6,908). 

In cases where the actual emoluments are lower than Rs 1,200 per month, the ad-hoc bonus will be calculated on the basis of actual monthly emoluments. 

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