Dearness Allowance for central government employees hiked by 3%
In a relief to over 47 lakh central government employees and over 68 lakh pensioners, the Centre Wednesday announced a 3 per cent hike in dearness allowance and dearness relief to 34 per cent, effective from January this year.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The relief will be given over the existing rate of 31 per cent of the basic pay/pension to compensate for the price rise, sources said after the Cabinet meeting.
They said the impact on the exchequer on account of DA and DR will be Rs 9,544.50 crore per annum. This will benefit about 47.68 lakh central government employees and 68.62 lakh, pensioners.
The beneficieries of DA and DR will get arrears for three months from January this year.
The government had earlier frozen the hike in DA and DR from January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, due to the Covid pandemic. It was restored from July 1, 2021 with an enhanced 11 per cent hike to 28 per cent.
Thereafter, in October 2021 as a Diwali bonanza, the Centre hiked DA and DR for its employees and pensioners by 3 per cent to 31 per cent. The hike was effective from July 1, 2021.
DA and DR to central government employees and pensioners are calculated on the basis of the rate of inflation as per the All India Consumer Price Index for industrial workers released by the Labour Bureau.
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