Minister of state for finance Anurag Thakur on Tuesday informed the Rajya Sabha that the three pending installments of dearness allowance and dearness relief will be restored from July. This comes as a relief to government employees as they are getting their DA at the previous rate since the implementation of the increased rate was put on a hold owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. DA is generally revised twice a year — in January and July. The increment is due since January 2020, making it total three installments — the first of January 2020, the second of July 2020 and the third of January 2021.
The decision will benefit 50 lakh central government employees and 61 lakh pensioners.
In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, the minister said that the government saved more than ₹37,430.08 crore from freezing these three hikes of DA.
At present, central employees get DA of 17 per cent of their basic salary. Last year, the Union Cabinet had approved a 4 per cent increase in DA for government employees, which was to be effective from January 1, 2021. But in April 2020, the increment was stalled.
"In view of the crisis arising out of Covid-19, it has been decided that the additional installment of dearness allowance (DA) payable to central government employees and dearness relief (DR) to central government pensioners, due from 1st January 2020 shall not be paid. Additional instalments of DA & DR from 1 July 2020 & 1 Jan 2021 shall also not be paid," the ministry of finance had said.