7th Pay Commission: Centre likely to announce DA hike today
Last revision in DA was done on September 28, 2022, which was effective from July 1, 2022.
The Centre in its scheduled cabinet meeting on Wednesday is likely to announce a 4% hike on the Dearness Allowance (DA) for over 50 lakh central government employees though, the government has not issued any formal notice regarding the same.
As per the speculations by several news reports, if the much-awaited announcement is made, then the Centre may hike the dearness allowance for employees and pensioners by four per cent to 42% from the existing 38%.
Last revision in DA was done on September 28, 2022, which was effective from July 1, 2022.
Notably, if the DA hike under the 7th pay commission is announced today, then the employees could receive their revised salary from March 31, 2023. Apart from this, the arrears for the months of January and February will also be added to the final amount, according to a report by PTI. The DA hike is made based on the latest Consumer Price Index for industrial workers (CPI-IW), released by the labour ministry every month.
Meanwhile, Minister of State of Finance Pankaj Chaudhary in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Monday said that the Centre has no plan to release the 18 months of Dearness Allowance (DA) arrears which were stopped in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic.
He said, "The decision to freeze three instalments of Dearness Allowance(DA)/Dearness Relief (DR) to Central Government employees/pensioners due from 01.01.2020, 01.07.2020 & 01.01.2021 was taken in the context of COVID-19, which caused economic disruption, so as to ease pressure on Government finances. As the adverse financial impact of pandemic in 2020 and the financing of welfare measures taken by Government had a fiscal spill over beyond FY 2020-21, arrears of DA/DR which mostly pertain to the difficult FY of 2020-21 are not considered feasible."
Dearness Allowance or Dearness Relief is paid to central government employees or pensioners to adjust their cost of living and to protect their basic pay or pension from erosion in the real value. The government revises the percentage of dearness allowance twice a year, on January 1 and July 1, the report added.
