It may be recalled that the Central government had recently approved a hike for central government employees taking the DA to 28 per cent.
In a good news for lakhs of Central government employees, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre is planning to once again hike the Dearness Allowance (DA) of Central government employees.
It may be recalled that the Central government had recently approved a hike for central government employees taking the DA to 28 per cent. But according to reports, the Centre is now planning to hike the DA to 31 per cent. The DA was earlier at 17 per cent but in July the DA was hiked to 28 per cent. The increase in DA is significant as it is directly related to salary and an increase in DA means an overall increase in salary of Central govenment employees.
The DA was was previously increased by the Centre in January 2020 when the DA was hiked by 4 per cent. This hike was followed by another 3 per cent in June and then 4 per cent in Janauary 2021. Notably, DA hike of June 2021 is not finalised yet, but the AICPI June data suggest that the DA will further increase by 3 per cent.
The Centre has already announced that it will not pay for any DA arrears for the period between January 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021.
It is to be noted that the DA hike was frozen for around 18 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Taking cue from the Centre, few states also decided to increase their DA rates for their government employees. These states include Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Haryana, Karnataka, Rajasthan and most recently, Assam.
Few daysa go, the Department of Expenditure, under the Ministry of Finance, released a memorandum regarding the revised rates of the DA to employees of the central government and central autonomous bodies.
