look news india
Just before the beginning of major festivals like Dussehra, Diwali and Chhath, great news has come for government employees and pensioners. With the aim of providing relief from rising inflation and making festival shopping easier, the government has approved a steep increase of up to 5 percent in Dearness Allowance (DA) of employees and Dearness Relief (DR) of pensioners.
According to the official order issued by the Finance Department, this decision will provide direct financial benefits to more than 50 thousand regular employees, pensioners, work-charged staff and contract workers. The increased rates have been implemented with retrospective effect, which means that along with the salaries of the employees, the outstanding arrears of the previous months will also be transferred to the account in one lump sum. Due to this decision coming on the cusp of festivals, there is an atmosphere of double happiness in the homes of the employees.
The government has clearly revised the rates of DA and DR for employees working under different pay structures:
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Employees with 7th Pay Commission (Revised Basic Pay): Under the 7th Pay Commission, the DA/DR of salaried employees and pensioners has been increased by 2 percent, due to which this rate has directly increased from 58% to 60%.
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Employees with 6th Pay Commission (Pre-Revised Basic Pay): There has been a bumper increase of 5 percent in DA for employees and pensioners working under the old 6th Pay Commission. Their dearness allowance has now increased from 257% to 262%.
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All India Service (AIS) Officers: All India Service officers working in the state will also get the full benefit of this revised rate (60% and 262%).
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Contract and Work-Charged Staff: Contractual employees working equivalent to the regular pay scale will also be paid under the new DA slab.
After the increase in DA, there will be a significant increase in the monthly in-hand salary of the employees. DA is calculated on basic pay.
For example:
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Minimum basic salary at ₹18,000: Under the 7th Pay Commission, if the basic salary of an employee is ₹ 18,000, then at the rate of 60% DA, he will get ₹ 10,800 only as dearness allowance every month.
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Basic salary at ₹35,000: Middle level employees will be paid DA of ₹21,000 at the rate of 60% on the basic salary of ₹35,000.
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Senior level at ₹50,000 basic salary: Officers drawing ₹50,000 basic pay will get ₹30,000 DA every month, which was earlier ₹29,000. That means a straight permanent increase of ₹1,000 per month.
Additionally, the government has also clarified the rounding-off rule—amounts of 50 paise or more will be rounded to the next whole rupee after calculation, while amounts less than 50 paise will be ignored.
The most important thing about this announcement is that the revised DA rates will be considered effective from January 1. Its direct benefit will be that the huge arrears of the employees and pensioners for the months from January till now will be credited together in their bank accounts. This huge arrears received during the festive season will act like a bonus, so that sufficient cash will be available in the pockets of the employees for festive expenses.
On one hand, at the state level, the Sikkim government has given relief to 50 thousand employees by giving this gift, on the other hand, the eyes of more than 1 crore central government employees and pensioners are also fixed on the upcoming decision of the Union Cabinet. Based on the AICPI index data of Labor Bureau, the central government can also announce an increase of 3% to 4% in the DA of central employees before Diwali, due to which the central DA can increase from 60% to 63% or 64%. Employee organizations from Lucknow, Kanpur to Delhi in Uttar Pradesh are also demanding payment of bonus and DA as soon as possible.