House Building Advance (HBA) for Indian Railway Employees

House Building Advance (HBA) for Indian Railway Employees

HBA is admissible to :

•  A Permanent railway employee or a temporary Railway employee with 10 years of service.
•  Officers of all India services (IAS, IPS, IFS) on deputation to the Railways continuously for 6 years.
•  If both Husband and wife are Railway employees, advance is admissible to any one of them. Where a house-site is owned jointly by husband and wife, amount will be sanctioned only if both agree to mortgage the same to Government.
• If both Husband and wife are Government Servants, the pay of both of them will be taken into consideration for calculating the ceiling limit.
• A Railway employee under suspension may be granted HBA on furnishing collateral security in the shape of mortgage bond from two permanent Railway employees.

HBA is granted for the following purposes:

• Purchase of a plot for construction of a house.
• Construction of a house on a plot already owned by a Railway employee or jointly with his/her spouse.
• Enlargement of an existing house.
• Purchase of a ready built house of flat.
• Repayment of loan taken from Govt/private sources for constructing a house.

Cost ceiling

•  134 times pay in Pay Band subject to a minimum of 7.5 Lakh and maximum of 30 Lakhs.

Amount of Advance

• 34 times the Basic Pay + Grade Pay or Rs. 7,50,000 or the actual cost or repaying capacity whichever is less.
• For enlargement of an existing house, 34 times the Basic Pay + Grade Pay or Rs. 1,80,000 or the actual cost whichever is less.
• In case of construction of a house in rural area, the amount of advance is 80% of the actual cost of construction and land.
• For purchase of plot/land and mount not exceeding 20% of advance in case of single storied and 15% in case of double storied is permitted.

Rate of Interest

Upto Rs. 50,000                 5%

Upto Rs. 1,50,000             6.5%

Upto Rs. 5,00,000             8.5%

Upto Rs. 7,50,000             9.5%

• Penal interest of 2.5% for violating conditions.
• 0.5% reduction for promoting small family norms.
• Rate of interest prevalent on the date of release of advance/first instalment shall be applicable.

Recovery

Principal               -    180 months

Interest                 -    60 months

Purchase of land and construct house – The following month of completing construction or 24 months after granting first installment whichever is earlier.

Construction of house – The following month of completing construction or 18 months after granting first installment whichever is earlier.

Source:  Indian Railway Employee

The Payment of Wages Act 1936

The Payment of Wages Act 1936
 The payment of Wages Act, 1936 is an important piece of legislation which regulates the payment of wages to employees in the industrial and other establishments, who are in respect of wages with average upto Rs.1600/- per month.  It seeks to ensure timely payment of wages without any unauthorised deductions.

The payment of wages (Railways) Rules, 1936, as amended from time to time, were framed by the Central Government to secure proper enforcement of the provisions of the Payment Of Wages  Act in respect of persons employed in railway including railway contractors who employ 20 or more persons on any day in the preceding 12 months.

Aim

•  To secure regular, prompt and cash payment
•  To fix wage period
•  To regulate the deductions made from the wages

Application

The Act is applicable to all Railway employees, and person employed in industrial establishments, and others whose wages are less than Rs. 1600 per month.

Wages include

• Basic pay.
• Officiating allowance.
• Leave salary.
• Overtime allowance.
• Special Compensatory allowance.
• House Rent allowance.
• Increment.
• Payment in lieu of notice period.
• Payment for piecework.
• Running allowance etc.

Wages does not include TA, bonus, housing accommodation, services and amenities provided, contribution paid by employer towards pension or gratuity, value of free passes and PTOs, value of rent free quarters, value of medical attendance, subsistence allowance etc.

Wages responsibility of Payment of Wages

•  The employer is responsible for the payment of wages to persons employed by him.
• Payment of wages should be made on a working day.
• Payment of wages should be in coins or currency in vogue.
• Payment in kind is not permissible.

Wage Period

Employer is responsible to fix the wage period for arranging payment and in no case the wage period shall exceed one month.

Payment Day

Where there are less than 1000 employees, the wages should be paid before the expiry of the 7th day after the wage period. Where there are 1000 or more employees, the wages should be paid before the expiry of the 10th day after the last day of the wage period.
If the employer terminates the employment, the wages earned should be paid before the expiry of the second working day from the date of termination.

Authorised Deductions

Wages of an employee should be paid without deduction except those authorized under the act. Deductions should not exceed 75% of wages, if deductions towards cooperative / consumer society are made and it should not exceed 50% of wages in other cases.

The authorized deductions are :

• Fines.
• Salary for absence from duty.
• Damage or loss of goods expressly entrusted to the employee or for loss of money for which the employee is accountable.
• Amenities and services.
• Income tax.
• Court attachments.
• Payment to cooperative societies.
• Insurance premium.
• House rent and allied charges.
• Loans and advances.
• Station and Stores debits.
• Prime Minister’s relief found.
• National defense fund.

Notices

• Number of persons employed.
• Wage period.
• Date of payment.
• Abstract of the Payment of Wages Act.
• Register
• Fines.
• Deductions
• Wages.
• Advances
• Inspectors

 The inspector of Factories, labour Inspectors and CIRM officials functions as Inspectors under the Act.

Penalties

Penalties are prescribed for omissions like failure of payment/delayed payment/unauthorized deductions and failure to display notices/registers.

Source: http://indianrailwayemployee.com/content/payment-wages-act-1936