New per diem rates for federal travel take effect October 1 with the start of the new fiscal year. For fiscal 2014, the main change is that the standard lodging rate for cities that do not have their own specific rates will increase from $77 to $83 a day. The “meals and incidental expense" component will continue to range from $46 to $71 a day and the standard rate will continue to be $46. There remain about 400 cities with specific rates, although within that number some were newly added while others that formerly had their own rates now fall under the standard rates. Some destinations have significantly higher rates in the new fiscal year, in part because rates for 2013 were frozen at 2012 levels. On average the increase is about 2 percent.
