The government gives Dearness Relief to government employees to combat inflation. It is currently 53 percent of basic salary and pension. This rate is revised twice a year on 1 January and 1 July on the basis of Consumer Price Index (CPI). According to the central government, the 8th Pay Commission will be implemented from 1 January 2026. Then DA can be started from zero.
Recently, the central government has approved the Eighth Pay Commission. However, central employees and pensioners will get its benefits from January 1, 2026 i.e. from next year. With the implementation of the 8th Pay Commission, there will be a big increase in the salary of central employees. Also, there may be a huge increase in the pension of pensioners. Some pensioners can get a pension of Rs 3.5 lakh per month after the implementation of the 8th Pay Commission. More than 1 crore employees and pensioners will get the benefit of the 8th Pay Commission.
Who will get 3.5 lakh monthly pension?
The fitment factor in the 7th Pay Commission was 2.57. In this, the minimum pension for retired employees was fixed at Rs 9,000 per month. Whereas, the maximum pension was Rs 1,25,000 per month. There is talk of increasing the fitment factor to 2.86 in the 8th Pay Commission. If this fitment factor is implemented, then the minimum pension will increase to Rs 25,740 per month. This means that there will be a huge increase of 186 percent in the pension. With this, the maximum pension of employees retiring from big posts and ranks can reach Rs 3,57,500 per month.
Will Dearness Allowance (DA) go to zero?
To combat inflation, the government gives Dearness Relief to government employees. It is currently 53 percent of the basic salary and pension. This rate is revised twice a year on the basis of Consumer Price Index (CPI), on 1 January and 1 July. If you want to understand Dearness Relief with an example, then it is quite easy. For example, if the basic pension of a pensioner is Rs 10,000, then after adding DR it will become Rs 15,300.
After the implementation of the 8th Pay Commission, the revised salary and pension will start being received, so will the dearness allowance increase from 53 percent or will it be made zero? This is a very important question, whose answer people want to know. Every time a new pay commission is implemented, the dearness allowance becomes zero, because the old dearness allowance is included in the minimum basic salary and basic pension. In such a situation, whatever dearness allowance remains after the implementation of the new pay commission, it may become zero.
How many times can the dearness allowance increase
According to the central government, the 8th Pay Commission will be implemented from January 1, 2026. This means that the dearness allowance (DA) has increased twice more, first in January 2025 and second in July 2025. Dearness allowance usually increases by 3 percent every time. Therefore, it will become 59 percent before the new pay commission comes into force. However, if for some reason there is some delay in implementing the 8th commission, then the government can also announce 3 percent dearness allowance for January 1, 2026.
In this situation, dearness allowance will increase to 62 percent. However, whenever the 8th pay is implemented, at that time the DA will be merged into the basic salary. Then DA will start from zero for central employees and pensioners, which will be increased twice every year.
