PayScale
Before Central Government Implemented Sixth Pay Commission there used to term called Pay Scale. This Pay Scale used to determine the rank and other benefits of the post.
Generally a Pay Scale tells what is the starting Basic, what is the increment amount for every year and what is the last basic in the Pay Scale.
For example take a Pay Scale, for the post of Scientist or Officer
8000-275-13500
here 8000 is the starting basic bay for the post.
275 is the increment amount for the post every year.
13500 is the last basic pay that post will attain after adding all the increments in the service
when a person joins in the post he will get 8000 as the basic pay
after one year he will given increment 275 so his basic pay will become 8275
like this every year he will get one increment and his basic pay will stop at 13500.
PayScale was used to determine the rank of the post also. for example most of the 8000-275-13500 pay scale posts are gezetted.
all people who are having payscale 8000-275-13500 are eligible to travel by air for official duty.
all 10000-325-15200 pay scale posts used to get two additional increments like this so on.
GradePay, PayBand
After Implementing Sixth Pay commision Government removed this Pay Scale term. Instead of this Pay Scale Introduced two terms One is Pay band and second one is Grade Pay
Grade Pay will determine the rank of the post and other benefits
Pay band will determine the starting pay and end pay for the post
For example Scientist or Officer entry level will get grade pay 5400 and Pay band 15600-39100
So an officer will get starting pay 15600 (this is called pay in pay band) and Gradepay 5400
now his basic pay will be 15600+5400 (Pay in Payband + Gradepay) i.e 21000 is the basic Pay
Sixth pay commission recommended 3% of basic pay as increment (unlike fixed amount 275)
after one year 3% of is basic pay will be the increment i.e 21000*3/100 = 630 is the increment amount so his pay in pay in Payband is 15600+630 i.e 16230 and his Basic Pay will be 16230 + 5400
like this pay in payband will go up to 39100 (last amount in pay band 15600-39100)
What is Basic Pay:
Basic Pay is the basic (minimum, without taking into account any additional benefits ) amount a person gets for his post. Based on this basic pay all other allowances are calculated like Dearness Allowance (DA) , House Rent Allowance (HRA) , Transport Allowance (TPA)
Dearness Allowance : Is the allowance given to accommodate price increases in the market. based on the current goods price DA allowance will be decided. Government will calculate the price increases on all the items (food, vegetables etc) and decides how much DA has to be paid for an employee. Generally this will be a percentage of BASIC PAY. From July 2012 on wards DA is 72% of Basic Pay.
House Rent Allowance :: This allowance is given for paying house rent. depending on the city you are living it will be some percentage of basic pay. at present for central Govt. employees this is 30% of Basic Pay ( for A1 cities like Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai etc). so if basic pay is 21000 he will get 6300 rupees as HRA.
Transport Allowance is given for accommodating the expenses for traveling between office and house.
Transport Allowance for posts having Grade Pay 5400 or above is 3200
and for other posts (i.e gradepay less than 5400 ) transport allowance is 1600
Along with Transport allowance DA on Transport allowance also will be paid to the employee. this is to compensate price increase in Transport expenses. current DA is 72% percent so if Transport allowance is 3200 then 72% of 3200 will paid as DA on Transport Allowance.