The Union Cabinet on March 30 approved a three percent DA hike for all central government employees and pensioners, effective from April 1, 2022. With this, the dearness allowance will jump to 34 percent of the basic salary of the central government employees.
The Centre announced the DA, DR hike today to help central government employees and pensioners cope with rising inflation.
“The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its approval to release an additional installment of Dearness Allowance (DA) to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners with effect from 01.01.2022 representing an increase of 3% over the existing rate of 31% of the Basic Pay/Pension, to compensate for price rise,” a statement released by the government read.
This increase is in accordance with the accepted formula, which is based on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission.
The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief would be Rs 9,544.50 crore per annum. This will benefit about 47.68 lakh Central Government employees and 68.62 lakh pensioners.
The revision in dearness allowance had been stalled for over one-and-half years due to the coronavirus pandemic. In July 2021, the Centre had hiked the dearness allowance and dearness relief for the central government employees to 28 percent from 17 percent after a long delay.
Then again in October 2021, the central government employees were treated to a further three percent jump in the DA. With the latest hike, the DA for central government employees rose to 31 percent, effective July 2021. Simultaneously, the dearness relief for central government pensioners also rose to 31 percent.
