In a move to give central government employees another reason to smile this Diwali, the Indian government has hiked their Dearness Allowance (DA) by 2 per cent of the basic salary with effective from July 1, 2016.
This will benefit about 50 lakh central government employees and 58 lakh pensioners
The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had approved this increase of the dearness allowance rate, an official said today.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and I&B Minister Venkaiah Naidu were also present in the meeting.
Earlier in August, the government hiked Dearness Allowance by 6 per cent to 125 per cent of the basic pay. The DA was later merged into the basic pay following implementation of 7th Pay Commission award.
The Cabinet also approved the increase in minimum pay Rs 18,000 from existing Rs 7,000. The 7th pay commission had recommended abolition of 51 allowances and subsuming 37 others out of 196 allowances.
