7th Pay Commission Latest News Today: Here comes some good news for the Central government employees ahead of the festive season. The Centre is likely to increase the dearness allowance for Central government employees by 4 percent, various media reports claimed. Once it is approved, this will be the second hike in both dearness relief (DR) and dearness allowance (DA). Reports further claimed that the DA hike is likely to be announced in September. Currently, the dearness allowance for the central government employees stands at 50 percent and with the latest hike in September, the total DA wil go up to 54 percent.
Even though the DA will be hiked, the Centre may not release the 18-month arrears, pending since the COVID pandemic. The Central government employees till now have not received 18-month arrears and there is no official statement by the government regarding this.
What is Dearness Allowance?
The Central government grants Dearness Allowance to its employees and pensioners to offset the impact of inflation and it is being granted to them to cope with increasing prices. The DA is also given to government employees to shield them from the adverse effects of inflation.
Latest changes in DA
The for central government employees has recently been increased by 4% to to a total of 50% from the previous rate of 46%. This increase was effective January 1, 2024. Moreover, the Dearness Relief (DR) for central government pensioners has also risen by 4% to reach 50%.
Check how is DA calculated?
The dearness allowance is calculated based on the CPI-IW data, which is published every month by the Labour Bureau.
How much salary will increase?
After 4 per cent hike in dearness allowance (DA), there will be a record-breaking increase in salary for the Central government employees. After latest DA hike, the total DA will increase to 54 per cent.
If the central employees are getting basic salary of Rs 40000, then according to 4 per cent DA, there will be an increase of Rs 1600 per month. If we calculate this for the whole year, there will be a Rs 19200 increase in the monthly salary of the employees. Many central employees are there whose salary is up to Rs 60,000. Then, as per the 4 percent DA, there will be an increase of Rs 2400 monthly in the salary of central employees.
It should be noted that the central government has yet to officially announced the date of the DA hike. It’s only media reports that suggest that the DA hike will be announced in the first week of September.
