Centre to hike Dearness Allowance by 3%

The government employees witness a hike in the Dearness Allowances, DA. The Dearness Allowance is revised twice in a year periodically. 

Introduction 

DA or the Dearness Allowance is provided to the employees working in either of the government sector or the Private sector. It is provided to compensate for the rising prises in the economy, and to cover up the gap of inflation. Since it is 

It is calculated in percentage on the basis of the basic salary of an individual, and is usually adjusted periodically twice in a year.  

Since, the dearness allowance is linked directly to the cost of living, obvious enough, the component for the same is going to be different for the employees residing in different locations. Therefore, the allowance of employees will be different for those in semi-urban areas, in urban areas and the rural areas residents. 

How much Dearness Allowance do the employees get?

The Dearness Allowance is likely to be increased by the Central Government, for over one crore government employees as well as pensioners, by 3 percent to 45 percent. The latest hike is effective from July 1, 2024. 

It will be nearly 700.9 percent which makes up a minimum of about Rs 15,000 for up to Rs 3500 of basic pay per month.

For any basic pay above Rs 3500 up to about Rs 6000, is 524 percent, which makes up a minimum payment of about Rs 24,500.  

Eventhough, the clarity of figure has not been provided, General Secretary of All India Railwaymen Federation, Shiva Gopal Mishra said that they are likely hike the allowance by 4 percent.

Presently, the central government employees enjoy about 42 percent of Dearness Allowance. 

More about Dearness Allowance 

The DA is worked on the basis of the latest CPI or the Consumer Price Index for Industrial workers, (CPI-IW), which is brought out in every month by the Labour Bureau. The Labour Burea is a wing of the Labour Ministry. 

Shiv Gopal Mishra also mentioned that the demand was made for 4 percentage point hike, but on the contrary, the dearness allowance seems to be slightly over 3 percentage points. 

He also stated further that the Expenditure Department under the Finance Ministry is likely to put up a proposal to hike DA along its revenue implication and present to the Union Cabinet for the approval. 

Past revision of DA

The last Dearness Allowance was revised on March 24, 2024, which came to be in effect from January 1, 2024. 

The 42 percentage DA that the employees presently receive, it was too increased by the Centre by 4 percent, on the basis of percentage increase in accordance with 12 monthly average of the All India Consumer Index, for the phase ending in December 2022. It was increased from 38 percent to the current 42 percent.   

The Union Cabinet, subjected to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had passed an approval to add up additional installememt of the Dearness Allowance to the central government employees and some relief provided to pensioners as well, like mentioned, was effective from January 1, 2024. 

During that time, the Union Minister, Anurag Thakur, stated that the Centre will be spending funds of about Rs 12,000 in the hike process, and nearly 47 lakh employees and 69 lakh pensioners were at the advantage of it.