Govt likely to hike dearness allowance for Central govt employees by 4 percentage points

Govt likely to hike dearness allowance by 4 percentage points for Central govt employees

The Union Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is likely to hike dearness allowance for Central government employees by 4 percentage points, reported CNBC-Awaaz on March 7. The Union Cabinet is slated to meet later on March 7.

The channel reported that a proposal has been placed to implement the increased DA with effect from January 1, 2024.

If the DA hike gets approved, it will raise the DA to 50 percent.

In October 2023, the Union Cabinet had increased the dearness allowance and dearness relief by 4 percentage points to 46 percent with effect from July 1, 2023 to benefit 48.67 lakh central government employees and 67.95 lakh pensioners. The cumulative financial impact resulting from hike in DR and DA was estimated at Rs 12,857 crore annually.

The increase was in accordance with the accepted formula based on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission.

Cabinet is also likely to approve hike in Minimum Support Price (MSP) for jute by Rs 285 per quintal.

Cabinet is also likely to approve AI Mission, reported the channel.

India will soon launch an AI Mission to build artificial intelligence-related computing capabilities across the country, PM Modi had announced in December 2023.

“We are going to launch an AI Mission in India soon. The objective of this mission will be to maximise the potential of AI computing in India and provide Indian startups and innovators with better opportunities,” he said, after inaugurating the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) Summit at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi.

“As part of this mission, the application of artificial intelligence technologies will be promoted in sectors, such as agriculture, healthcare and education,” Modi said.

On Thursday, CNBC-TV18 reported that government is likely to extend the LPG subsidy scheme by another year (FY25).

In October 2023, the government had raised the subsidy provided to poor women, who got free cooking gas connections under the Ujjwala Yojana, to Rs 300 per cylinder.

For 2022-23, Rs 6,100 crore was provided for the Ujjwala subsidy, which increased to Rs 7,680 crore in the current 2023-24 fiscal (April 2023 to March 2024).

The subsidy is credited directly to the bank accounts of eligible beneficiaries.

The targeted support to Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) consumers encourages them for continuous use of LPG.

The average LPG consumption of PMUY consumers increased 20 percent from 3.01 refills in 2019-20 to 3.68 in 2021-22.

With inputs from PTI