Salaried employees who lives in a rented house can claim the House Rent Allowance ( HRA ) to lower taxes. This can be completely or partially exempt from taxes. This allowance is for expenses related to rented dwelling. If you do not live in rented dwelling, this allowance is fully taxable under the income tax rule.
Applicability :-
- These rules shall apply to all Government servants.
- These rules shall not apply to :
- Staff employed on work-charged or daily wages employees.
- Officers employed on contract unless specific term in regard to admissibility of HRA has been provided in the terms of contract.
When Acceptable :
- (i) A Government servant who is living in a rented lodgment shall be entitled to house rent allowance at the rates mentioned in Rule 5 of HRA.
(ii) House Rent Allowance (HRA) as per clause (i) will however be admissible on furnishing a certificate to the effect that he is incurring some expenditure on rent /contributing towards rent. In case, the lodgment hired is sub-let to one or more persons, whether Government servant(s) or not, and the actual rent charged by the Government servant is equal to or exceeds the amount of rent being paid to the land lord, it would be deemed that the Government servant is incurring no expenditure on rent nor contributing towards rent. - A Government servant living in a house owned by her husband / his wife , children, father or mother or in a house owned by a Hindu undivided family in which he is a co-parent shall be paid to house rent allowance at the rates mentioned in Rule 5 of these rules, subject to his furnishing certificate that he is paying / contributing towards house or property tax or maintenance of the house.
Clarification : –
A Government servant living in a house purchased on hire purchase basis from the Rajasthan Housing Board shall be deemed to be owning a house for under these rules. - In case where husband and wife both are in service of Government at the same place and are living together in the rented/owned accommodation, both of them shall be entitled to House Rent Allowance at the rates mentioned in Rule 5 of these rules, subject to fulfillment of other conditions for drawal of the allowance i.e. furnishing of certificate as required in clause (ii) of sub-rule (1) or sub-rule(2) as the case may be and making of an application as required in sub-rule (4).
- The allowance shall be granted to a Government servant from the date of occupation of the rented / owned dwelling, making an application in accordance with the procedure prescribed under these rules; provided that if the said application is not made within one month of the date of occupation of the dwelling or admissibility, the allowance shall be admissible from the date of application.
- In case of a Government servant who own a house at a place of duty but resides in a rented house instead, house rent allowance shall be paid in respect of the rented house.
When not Acceptable :
The House Rent Allowance shall not be admissible to a Government servants :
- (A) Who is occupying Government owned / leased / requisitioned dwelling or on subsidised rates in Government building i.e. Circuit Houses, Dak-bungalows, Quaters, Hostels owned by Government etc.
(B) Who is occupying dwelling belong to Devisthan Department or any other Government Departments.
(C) who is occupying dwelling belong to U.I.T./ Municipality/ Local Fund Bodies or any other Autonomous body.
2. Who accepts allotment of Government dwelling, from the date of occupation, or from eighth day after the date of allotment of Government dwelling, whichever is earlier.
3. (a) Who shares Government dwelling house, allotted rent free to another Government servant or who resides in dwelling allotted to her husband/ his wife or to his/ her parents/son /daughter by the Government or autonomous public undertakings or government Corporation or semi-Government Organisations such as Municipalities etc.
(b) If her husband / his wife has been allotted family dwelling at the same place by the State Government, Central Government or Autonomous Public undertakings or Government Corporation or semi-Government Organisation such as Municipalities etc.
Rate of House Rent Allowance in all type cities :
Here is list of revised cities classified for house rent allowance :
| TYPE OF CITIES | % OF HRA |
| X type city | 24 |
| Y type city | 16 |
| Z type city | 8 |
Classification of House Rent Allowance in all cities :
Cities falling under X category :
(City population of 50 lakh and above) – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata.
Cities falling under Y category:
(City population between 5 lakh to 50 lakh) – Bikaner, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Ajmer, Vijaywada, Warangal, Greater Visakhapatnam, Guntur, Nellore, Guwahati, Patna, Chandigarh, Bhavnagar, Durg-Bhilai Nagar, Raipur, Rajkot, Jamnagar, Vadodara, Surat, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Srinagar, Jammu, Jamshedpur, Firozabad, Dhanbaad, Raanchi, Bokaro Steel City, Belgaum, Hubli-Dharwad, Mangalore, Mysore, Gulbarga, Kozhikode, Kochi, Thiruvanthapuram, Thrissur, Malappuram, Kannur, Kollam, Gwalior, Indore, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Ujjain, Amravati, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Nashik, Bhiwandi, Solapur, Kolhapur, Vasai-Virar City, Maleegaon, Jhansi, Nanded-Waghala, Sangli, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Raurkela, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Puducherry, Salem, Tirupur, Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli, Madurai, Erode, Dehradun, Meerut, Ghaziabaad, Moradabad, Aligarh, Agra, Bareilly, Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Saharanpur, Noida, Asansol, Siliguri, Durgapur.
Cities falling under Z category:
(City population below the 5 lakh) – The remaining cities and towns in various states or union territories which are not covered by under X and Y category.
| Format Description |
|---|
| Download HRA Form in PDF format |
| Download HRA Form in WORD format |
| Download HRA related government Order |
House Rent Allowance (HRA) – Rules and Formats
Salaried employees who lives in a rented house can claim the House Rent Allowance ( HRA ) to lower taxes. This can be completely or partially exempt from taxes. This allowance is for expenses related to rented dwelling. If you do not live in rented dwelling, this allowance is fully taxable under the IT rule.
