New Delhi, Oct 18 (IANS): The Centre has cleared an ad-hoc bonus for Group C and non-gazetted Group B rank Central government officials, including paramilitary forces and armed forces.

In a notification, the Finance Ministry on Tuesday said, "The calculation ceiling for payment of ad-hoc bonus under these orders shall be monthly emoluments of Rs 7,000."

The Centre has laud some terms and conditions for disbursement of the bonus. These are as follows:

Only those employees who were in service as on March 31, 2023 and have rendered at least six months of continuous service in 2022-23 are eligible for payments. The 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 at service (rounded off to the nearest number of months).

The Centre has also said that the quantum of non-productivity linked bonus will be worked out on the basis of average emoluments or calculation ceiling, whichever is lower.

Thirdly, the casual labour who have worked in offices following a six-days week or at least 240 days for each year for three years or more (206 days in each year for three years or more in the case of offices observing a five-day week), will be eligible for the payment of this bonus.

All the payments under these orders will be rounded off to the nearest rupee.

The notification also said that the expenditure on this account will be debitable to the respective object head in terms of the department of expenditure's notification dated December 16, 2022.

Lastly, the expenditure to be incurred on account of this ad-hoc bonus is to be met from within the sanctioned budget provision of concerned Ministries/departments for the current year.