7th Pay Commission: The government may announce a four percent increase in Dearness Allowance for central government employees in the next month i.e. March 2024. DA for employees and pensioners is decided every month on the basis of the new Consumer Price Index for Industrial Labor (CPI-IW) released by the Labor Bureau.
7th Pay Commission: The government may announce a four percent increase in Dearness Allowance for central government employees in the next month i.e. March 2024. DA for employees and pensioners is decided every month on the basis of the new Consumer Price Index for Industrial Labor (CPI-IW) released by the Labor Bureau.
DA will increase to 50%
The increase in DA will be as per the approved formula based on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission. In October 2023, the Cabinet had last increased DA for government employees and Dearness Relief for pensioners by four percent. With that four percent increase, DA increased from 42 percent to 46 percent. Now with an increase of 4 percent it will increase to 50 percent.
About 1 crore employees and pensioners will benefit
Increasing DA will benefit 48.67 lakh central government employees and 67.95 lakh pensioners. Earlier, the government had approved Diwali bonus for Group C and non-gazetted Group B level officers, including paramilitary forces. For 2022-2023, the Finance Ministry had fixed the limit of non-productivity linked bonus for central government employees at Rs 7,000.
This is how DA is decided
The government takes the decision to increase DA based on the inflation rate of the country. If inflation is high, DA will be increased further. The DA and DR hike is determined by the percentage increase in the 12-month average of the All India Consumer Price Index (AICPI) for the financial year. Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced in December 2023 that her government will give a four percent increase in DA to all its employees from New Year’s Day.
DA increases twice a year
The central government increases DA twice a year. It is revised every year on 1 January and 1 July. These decisions are usually announced in March and September. After the DA increase in March, both employees and pensioners will benefit.
