DA Hike: The central government has approved a 2% increase in Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) for employees and pensioners. This will increase the salary and pension of the employees. This new dearness allowance will be applicable from January 2025
DA Hike: The central government has approved a 2% increase in Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) for central employees and pensioners. This will increase the salary and pension of the employees. This new dearness allowance will be applicable from January 2025. That is, central employees will get 2 months’ arrears along with the increased amount in March salary.
Government’s expenditure will increase by Rs 6614.04 crore
The central government has increased the Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) for its employees and pensioners by 2%, which will now increase from 53% to 55%. This increase will be effective from January 1, 2025 and will benefit about 48.66 lakh employees and 66.55 lakh pensioners. Its annual expenditure on the government will be Rs 6614.04 crore. This decision has been taken to reduce the impact of inflation and has been approved as per the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission.
Now dearness allowance increased to 55%
Till now the dearness allowance of central employees was 53%, which was increased by 3% in October 2024. Now after this new increase of 2%, DA has reached 55%. However, this is the lowest increase in the last 7 years, as usually the government has been increasing at least 3% or 4%.
DA was stopped during the Corona period, demands still unfulfilled
During the pandemic, the government had stopped DA hike for 18 months from January 2020 to June 2021. Employees unions have been continuously demanding arrears for this period, but no decision has been taken on this till now. The government increases DA twice every year—once for January-June and second time for July-December. According to tradition, DA for January-June is announced in March and July-December in October-November.
How is DA decided?
Dearness allowance is calculated on the basis of All India Consumer Price Index (AICPI-IW), which is released by the Labor Bureau. The government decides the increase based on the average data of the last 6 months.
Will government employees get more relief?
At present, more than 1 crore central employees and pensioners will benefit from this decision of the government. However, the demand of the employee unions was that DA should be increased by 3% or more, but the government has increased it by only 2%. Now everyone’s eyes are on the next DA revision and the recommendations of the 8th Pay Commission. The 8th Pay Commission will be implemented in the country from next year 2026.
