Before September 2008, the Assistance for education of children was available to all Central Government employees without any pay limit . The assistance was in the form of :-
i) Reimbursement of Tuition Fee of upto Rs.40 per month for students in Class I to X and Rs.50 per month for students in Class XI & XII. In case of physically handicapped and mentally retarded children, the maximum limit is Rs.100 per month.
ii) Children’s Education Allowance is payable at the rate of Rs.100 per month in case the Government employee is compelled to send his child to a school away from the Station of his posting.
iii) Hostel subsidy at the rate of Rs.300 per month is paid in case the employee is obliged to keep his children in a hostel away from the Station of his posting and residence on account of transfer.
In all these cases, the benefit is available up-to 3 children in respect of children born upto 31/12/1987 and 2 children born thereafter.
The Sixth Pay Commission recommended merger of Children Education Allowance and Reimbursement of Tuition Fee which will henceforth be reimbursement upto the maximum of Rs.1000 per child per month subject to a maximum of 2 children. Hostel subsidy may be
reimbursed up to the maximum limit of Rs.3000 per month per child. The limits would be automatically raised by 25% every time the Dearness Allowance on the revised pay bands goes up by 50%.Everybody felt happy about this recommendation.
But after the implementation of Children Education Allowance on September 2008, claiming the CEA is not that much easy as told in 6CPC recommendation and the DOP&T order. Bills submitted by the Govt staffs were rejected by some Govt establishments on various reasons. As a result of this the CEA for the Academic Year 2008-2009 was not paid properly.
The DOP&T order OM. No. 12011/03/2008-Estt.(Allowance) says that, ‘In order to ensure that Government servants have no difficulty in claiming reimbursement, the procedure under this scheme is being kept simple. Reimbursement should henceforth be made on the submission of original receipts on the basis of self certification by the Government servant.’
Since the RTF is named after an ALLOWANCE (CHILDREN EDUCATION ALLOWANCE), why shouldn’t it be paid as other Allowances like HRA, TA and DA?
Where ever procedure comes, Difficulty will enter there without invitation. So ‘In order to ensure that Government servants have no difficulty in claiming CEA, the procedure must be removed.’. Will the Government do the necessary amendments in the CEA order?
Any comments?
Yes, cettainly you are very correct. very good Scheme but very bad implementation..!
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