7th Pay Commission DA Hike for Government Employees: The Central Government has recently said in the Parliament that the requirement of raising Dearness Allowance or DA for Central Government employees by more than 3 per cent under the Seventh Pay Commission is not valid as the increase is made at par with inflation rates. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet meeting was expected to be held on Wednesday on the issue of DA hike for government employees, but there was no official update on any decision. The government can take a decision on the DA hike before Holi.
During the second part of the budget session on Tuesday, the central government sent replies to several questions on why the hike in dearness allowance of central government employees has been kept constant at a time when the rate of inflation is high. The question was also asked whether the government would consider increasing the DA/DR according to the current inflation rate.
“Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) to Central Government employees and pensioners respectively are calculated on the basis of rate of inflation as per All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (AICPI0IW) issued by Labor Bureau, M/s. o Labor and Employment,” Pankaj Choudhary, Union Minister of State for Finance, said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
Responding to a question whether “the Government will consider giving DA/DR as per prices and not maintain DA/DR at a constant 3 per cent,” the Minister said that “the question does not arise” in view of his above reasons.
Average retail inflation for the October-December quarter of 2021 was 5.01 per cent, while it rose to 6.07 per cent in the month of February this year.
DA Hike: What to expect this time
Now there are reports that the Center may again increase the DA by 3 percent. With this latest increase, DA will be 34 per cent of the basic pay. This decision will benefit more than 50 lakh government employees and 65 lakh pensioners.
What is DA?
Dearness Allowance is a component of salaries of government employees and pensioners, aimed at mitigating the effects of inflation. The effective pay of government employees is revised from time to time to deal with the rising inflation rate. The DA is generally revised twice every year – in January and July. However, no DA hike has been announced for this year yet.
In July, 2021, the Center increased dearness allowance and dearness relief from 17 per cent to 28 per cent. The central government has stopped DA for almost one and a half years due to the coronavirus pandemic. With a further increase of 3 per cent in October, 2021, DA for central government employees increased to 31 per cent.
Dearness relief for central government pensioners was also increased to 31 per cent with effect from July 1,2021.
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