Cabinet okays additional DA to central govt staff, dearness relief to pensioners

To compensate for rising prices, the union cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today approved the release of an additional installment of dearness allowance to central government employees and dearness relief (DR) to pensioners, with effect from July 1, representing a 3% increase over the existing rate of 28% of basic pay/pension.

The government had resumed payment of increased dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) that had been frozen since January 2020. The DA rate was increased from 17% to 28% in July, subsuming the three installments due from January 1, 2020, July 1, 2020, and January 1, 2021, because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This decision to release additional DA was announced by the minister of information & broadcasting, Anurag Singh Thakur.

Based on the Seventh Central Pay Commission’s recommendations, the hike is in line with the approved formula. The total impact of dearness allowance and dearness relief on the exchequer would be Rs 9,488.70 crore per year. About 47.14 lakh central government employees and 68.62 lakh retirees will profit from this.

(With inputs from Press Information Bureau)