In a New Year gift for over nine lakh state government employees and pensioners, the Gujarat government on Wednesday hiked the dearness allowance (DA) by five percent.
With this, the DA would be 17 per cent, on par with Central government employees, said Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel in Gandhinagar.
The hike will come into effect retrospectively from July 1, 2019, Patel said.
It will benefit 5.11 lakh employees and 4.5 lakh, pensioners.
"This month's salary will be paid with new DA, arrears of previous months would be paid in a phased manner," the deputy CM said.
The hike would put an additional burden of Rs 1,821 crore on the state exchequer every year, he said.
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