JOIN USThe Centre is likely to announce next month a hike in dearness allowance (DA) by 10 per cent to 100 per cent, benefiting about 50 lakh employees and 30 lakh pensioners.
It will be the second double-digit DA hike in a row. The government had announced a hike of 10 per cent to 90 per cent in September last year, effective July 1, 2013.
According to an official source, the preliminary assessment suggests that dearness allowance hike will not be less than 10 per cent and would be effective from January 1 this year. He said the exact percentage hike in DA could be calculated only when the revised all India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) for December is released on February 28.
According to the provisional data released by government on Friday, the retail inflation for factory workers for the month of December stood at 9.13 per cent. As per practice, the government uses CPI-IW data of the past 12 months to arrive at a quantum for the purpose of any DA hike. Thus, the retail inflation for industrial workers from January 1 to December 31, 2013, will be used to take a final call on the matter.
“It would be 10 per cent this time and would be announced in March,” said Confederation of Central Government Employees president K K N Kutty. “Besides raising DA to 100 per cent, the government should revise the pay and merge DA with basic pay,” he said.
Kutty also said the Central government employees would go on a two-day strike from February 12 to demand pay revision.