Promotions and MACP: how your career and pay grow

Two different things

A promotion gives you a higher post, new duties and a higher pay level. It depends on vacancies in the next grade, your seniority and, often, a departmental examination.

MACP (Modified Assured Career Progression) is a safety net. If you are not promoted, you still get a financial upgrade to the next pay level after 10, 20 and 30 years of service. Your designation and duties stay the same; only the pay level moves.

How promotions happen

• Seniority-cum-fitness through a Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC), when a vacancy arises in the next grade.
• Limited Departmental Competitive Examination (LDCE), which lets younger staff jump ahead by clearing an exam. This is how postal assistants become inspectors and constables become sub-inspectors.
• Time-scale promotion in the early years of Group A services and the defence forces, where the first few steps come after fixed periods.
• General Departmental Competitive Examination in the railways, which lets Level 1 staff move to clerk, train manager or station master posts.

Why promotion speed differs so much

Promotion needs a vacancy above you. In a small or stagnant cadre you may wait 15 to 20 years; in an expanding one, five to eight. The same post, for example Inspector in a tax department, can be promoted years earlier in one region than another. This is why each profile on this site gives promotion time as a range.

What MACP is worth

On a MACP upgrade you get one increment in your current level and are then placed in the next level at the equal or next higher cell. The gain is usually a few thousand rupees a month. The salary calculator on each post page has a switch that shows pay with and without MACP over the years.