Every aspirant eventually searches this term, and almost every answer online quotes a confident in-hand figure that cannot possibly be right for everybody, because the number depends on which city you are posted in and what the current dearness allowance rate is. What can be stated accurately is the structure: the pay level, the entry basic pay, which allowances sit on top of it, which deductions come off it, and how the figure grows over a career. Once you understand the structure you can compute your own number from the current orders, rather than trusting somebody else's screenshot.
The pay slip is decided by these 270 marks and nothing else - there is no interview in MTS, so the CBT score, plus the physical stage for Havaldar applicants, is the entire gate. Two 45-minute sessions, 90 questions, Session I with no negative marking and Session II deducting one mark per wrong answer. Worth noticing when you plan: the marks are not spread evenly, with Session II carrying 150 of the 270 even though General Awareness and English are the sections most candidates under-prepare. The 60 extra marks sitting in Session II are, in effect, the difference between reading about the salary and drawing it.
MTS and Havaldar are Group C non-gazetted posts placed at Level 1 of the 7th Pay Commission pay matrix, where the entry basic pay is Rs 18,000 and the cell values run up to Rs 56,900 at the top of that level. You do not stay at the entry cell. Each annual increment moves you one cell along Level 1, so the same post pays materially more after some years of service even before any promotion, which is why the headline starting figure understates a career at this level.
House Rent Allowance is a percentage of basic pay determined by the class of your posting city - X, Y or Z, classified by population - and the top slab for X cities is 30 per cent of basic, stepping down for Y and Z. These percentages themselves step up as dearness allowance crosses notified thresholds. Two people appointed on the same day at the same basic pay therefore see noticeably different amounts credited, purely because of posting. Transport Allowance is similarly higher in specified cities than elsewhere.
Havaldar posts in CBIC and CBN are recruited through the same MTS examination and are placed at the same Level 1, so the pay matrix is not the reason to choose one over the other. The differences are the work and the entry route: Havaldar is a uniformed post attached to GST and Customs or narcotics offices and requires clearing the PET and PST, while MTS work is office-based, covering file movement, record keeping, dispatch, upkeep and assisting officials. Post-specific allowances, where a department provides them, are the only place the two diverge on money.
Gross pay is basic plus dearness allowance plus HRA plus transport allowance and any department-specific allowance. What lands in your account is that gross minus the National Pension System contribution, CGHS or health scheme contribution, any professional tax levied by your state and income tax where applicable. Do the subtraction before you build a household budget around the number you read online, and if you want an exact figure, take the current DA order, your city class and the Level 1 entry cell and compute it yourself - the arithmetic is Class 10 percentage work, which is, appropriately, exactly what the exam tests.
The post is placed at Level 1 of the 7th Pay Commission pay matrix, with an entry basic pay of Rs 18,000 per month. Basic pay is only the base of the calculation - dearness allowance, house rent allowance and transport allowance are added on top of it, and the applicable rates change from time to time and from city to city. Rather than quoting a single all-India in-hand figure, take Rs 18,000 as the anchor and add the currently notified DA percentage and the HRA slab for your posting city to arrive at your own gross.
In-hand equals gross minus deductions, and both sides of that vary. On the gross side, the DA rate is revised twice a year and the HRA percentage depends on whether your posting is in an X, Y or Z class city, with the highest slab being 30 per cent of basic for X cities. On the deduction side, the main items are the National Pension System contribution, a health scheme contribution, professional tax in states that levy it, and income tax if your total income is taxable. A candidate posted in a metro will draw appreciably more than one posted in a small town at the same basic pay, so any single number quoted as the in-hand figure is at best an average and at worst misleading.
Both are Level 1 posts in the pay matrix with the same entry basic pay, so the core salary is the same. Any difference comes from allowances attached to the specific department or posting rather than from the pay level. Havaldar, however, involves an additional selection stage in the form of the Physical Efficiency Test and Physical Standard Test, and the nature of duty is different, being a uniformed post in CBIC or CBN offices. Choose between them on the work and the posting profile you want, not on an expectation of higher pay.
MTS is a Group C non-gazetted entry-level post with a defined upward path, typically towards Lower Division Clerk and then Upper Division Clerk, and further up the ministerial ladder in departments that allow it. Movement usually depends on a combination of length of service, available promotion quota and, in many departments, a departmental examination. The eligibility period and the quota differ from department to department, so the recruitment rules of the ministry or department you join are the only reliable source for your own timeline rather than a figure quoted generally. Separately, annual increments raise your pay within Level 1 even when no promotion is due.
The pay level does not - Level 1 applies across the central government departments that recruit through this examination, so the basic pay and its matrix progression are uniform. What differs in practice is the posting city, which changes HRA and transport allowance, and any allowance specific to a department's rules. Promotion prospects also vary quite a lot by department, because the number of higher posts relative to MTS strength is not the same everywhere, and over a full career that difference in progression usually matters more to lifetime earnings than any difference in starting allowances.
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