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HRA rates and the X, Y, Z city list
How much House Rent Allowance Central Government employees get, how the city you work in decides the rate, and how HRA changes as DA rises.
Current HRA rates
House Rent Allowance (HRA) is a percentage of your basic pay (not basic plus DA). The percentage depends on the class of the city where you are posted. Since DA crossed 50% on 1 January 2024, the rates are:
| City class | Who it covers | HRA | Minimum per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| X | Cities with a population of 50 lakh or more | 30% | ₹5,400 |
| Y | Cities with a population of 5 to 50 lakh | 20% | ₹3,600 |
| Z | All other places | 10% | ₹1,800 |
Example: Level 6, basic pay ₹35,400, posted in a Y class city: HRA = 20% × ₹35,400 = ₹7,080 a month.
How HRA rates change with DA
The 7th Pay Commission set HRA to rise automatically as DA rises:
| When DA is | X | Y | Z |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below 25% (from 1 January 2016) | 24% | 16% | 8% |
| 25% or more (applied from July 2021) | 27% | 18% | 9% |
| 50% or more (from 1 January 2024) | 30% | 20% | 10% |
At the 8th Pay Commission, DA resets to 0%. The 8th CPC will set its own HRA rules, which are not known yet. If it follows the 7th CPC pattern, HRA could restart at 24/16/8%. The calculator lets you choose between today’s rates and the reset rates.
X class cities
The eight X class cities, together with their urban areas as classified by the Government:
- Ahmedabad
- Bengaluru
- Chennai
- Delhi
- Hyderabad
- Kolkata
- Mumbai
- Pune
The calculator also treats these nearby areas as X class, as part of those urban areas: New Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Faridabad (with Delhi); Secunderabad (with Hyderabad); Howrah (with Kolkata); Navi Mumbai and Thane (with Mumbai).
Y class cities
Cities and urban areas used as Y class in the calculator:
- Agra
- Ajmer
- Aligarh
- Amravati
- Amritsar
- Anand
- Asansol
- Aurangabad
- Bareilly
- Belagavi (Belgaum)
- Bhavnagar
- Bhilai
- Bhiwandi
- Bhopal
- Bhubaneswar
- Bikaner
- Bilaspur
- Bokaro Steel City
- Chandigarh
- Coimbatore
- Cuttack
- Dehradun
- Dhanbad
- Durg
- Durgapur
- Erode
- Firozabad
- Gandhinagar
- Gorakhpur
- Guntur
- Guwahati
- Gwalior
- Hamirpur
- Hubballi-Dharwad
- Indore
- Jabalpur
- Jaipur
- Jalandhar
- Jalgaon
- Jammu
- Jamnagar
- Jamshedpur
- Jhansi
- Jodhpur
- Kakinada
- Kalaburagi (Gulbarga)
- Kannur
- Kanpur
- Karnal
- Kochi (Ernakulam)
- Kolhapur
- Kollam
- Kota
- Kottayam
- Kozhikode
- Kurnool
- Lucknow
- Ludhiana
- Madurai
- Malappuram
- Malegaon
- Mangaluru (Mangalore)
- Mathura
- Meerut
- Moradabad
- Mysuru (Mysore)
- Nagpur
- Nanded
- Nashik
- Nellore
- Palakkad
- Patna
- Prayagraj (Allahabad)
- Puducherry
- Purulia
- Raipur
- Rajahmundry
- Rajkot
- Ranchi
- Ratlam
- Rourkela
- Saharanpur
- Salem
- Sangli
- Shimla
- Siliguri
- Solapur
- Srinagar
- Surat
- Thanjavur
- Thiruvananthapuram
- Thrissur
- Tiruchirappalli
- Tirunelveli
- Tiruppur
- Tiruvannamalai
- Ujjain
- Vadodara
- Varanasi
- Vasai-Virar
- Vellore
- Vijayapura (Bijapur)
- Vijayawada
- Visakhapatnam
- Warangal
Z class
Every place not in the X or Y lists is Z class, with HRA at 10% of basic pay and a minimum of ₹1,800 a month.
Check your office’s classification. City classes are fixed by the Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure, and are revised from time to time. This list is compiled from public sources for guidance and may be incomplete. Your office’s pay records and the latest Government order decide your actual HRA.
HRA and income tax
Under the old tax regime, part of your HRA can be tax-free if you pay rent. The exempt amount is the lowest of: the HRA you receive; rent paid minus 10% of basic pay plus DA; and 50% of basic pay plus DA in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, or 40% elsewhere. Under the new tax regime, HRA is fully taxable. The calculator’s tax section works this out for you.
Find your HRASearch your city in the calculator and it sets the class for you.
Open the calculator