Dear, Since your service was less than five years, you are not eligible for Gratuity payment. The concept of showing the Salary of an employee in the form of CTC (Cost To Company) is a gimmick developed by new generation companies particularly IT/ITES to attract employees and making them fool. The CTC will include all costs – fixed and variable, historic and future or actual and anticipated- which are to be incurred due to employment of a person. Under the CTC concept even the expenses which are to be met after 5 years of employment are not spared but the projected sum is distributed evenly through out right from the first month of service. Similar are the cases of Employees Provident Fund contribution and the Gratuity. These are statutory obligations of the employer. Though EPF contribution takes place every month the gratuity payment takes place only once and that also after five years of service. When no one is certain that he will be in continuous service for five years with an employer the practice of showing gratuity in the salary cannot be encouraged. More over, gratuity is not payable to any employee during his service but it is payable only when he leaves due to any reason including death. The practice of including employer’s contribution to EPF as part salary and then making a deduction of the amount from the salary shall be interpreted as recovering employer’s contribution from the employee and can be challenged as ‘ an employer shall not deduct his own share of contribution from the salary of the employee’. Similarly an employer cannot realize any amount from the employee for payment of gratuity in future. In the conventional style of salary fixation, the Basic Salary is fixed and allowances like Dearness allowance, House rent Allowance etc are declared as percentages of the fixed basic. The other benefits will be offered as ‘stated in the standing orders of the organisation’. or benefit available to the employees of a particular category. Including everything in CTC is not a best practice to be encouraged, rather Gross Salary concept is always better option to elaborate the structure of salary. Thanks Mohd. Arif Khan