7th Pay Commission: Dearness Allowance hiked to 46% for central government employees

Dearness Allowance: In a good news for the central government employees ahead of the festive season, the cabinet on Wednesday cleared an additional 4 percentage points Dearness Allowance for government employees. With this the allowance rises to 46 percentage points from 42 percentage points of the basic salary.

Salary hike

This hike would be effective from July 1, 2023 and will lead to enhanced salaries for the month of November, along with arrears for the period from July to October. As per India Today, the DA hike is likely to benefit 47 lakh employees and 68 lakh pensioners.

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The minimum basic salary for a government employees is Rs 18,000. A 4 percentage points increase in DA translate to a monthly increase to Rs 8,280. Similarly for the maximum basic salary of Rs 56,900, the DA adds Rs 23,898 to their monthly earnings.

Dearness Allowance

Dearness Allowance (DA) is a cost-of-living adjustment allowance provided to public sector employees by the government, while Dearness Relief (DR) is similar and benefits central government pensioners. Dearness allowance is determined based on the Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers.

The government revises the DA/DR rate every six months to counteract the effects of inflation.