Festive cheer for staff, govt okays 3% DA hike

In a pre-Diwali bonanza for Central government employees and pensioners, the Cabinet on Wednesday approved a 3 per cent increase in Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR), envisaging an annual outlay of Rs 10,083.96 crore.

This will benefit about 49.19 lakh Central government employees and 68.72 lakh pensioners.

The hike, effective from July 1, was announced by Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw after the Cabinet meeting.

Clearance to elevated assam green corridor

The Union Cabinet approved the construction of an elevated corridor in order to aid the movement of wildlife from Kaziranga National Park in Assam and cleared widening of the Kalibor-Numaligarh section of NH-715 and improvement of the existing carriageway to four-lane.

The increase is in accordance with the accepted formula based on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission.

The hike in DA and DR comes days after the rationalisation of GST rates, which reduced prices of mass-consumption items such as ghee, paneer, butter, namkeen, ketchup, jam, dry fruits and coffee, as well as aspirational goods like TVs, ACs, and washing machines.

This is the second increase this year. In March, a 2 per cent hike had raised DA payouts from 53 per cent of basic pay to 55 per cent, following a 3 per cent revision in October last year. With Wednesday’s raise, DA has now reached 58 per cent.

DA is paid to government employees to offset inflation. The latest revision reflects the movement of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for industrial workers, which forms the basis for the biannual DA adjustments.

Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday hailed the Union Cabinet’s decision to increase the DA and DR by 3 per cent, saying it is a gift from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Central government employees and their family members on the eve of Vijayadashami.