Dearness Allowance Hike News: The upcoming DA hike, which will be effective from January 1, 2025, is expected to be announced around Holi in March. However, no official announcement has been made on this yet.
Dearness Allowance Hike: Even though the 8th Pay Commission is expected to be implemented next year, Central Government Employees will get the benefit of DA hike at least twice under the current 7th Pay Commission. This benefit is expected to be available in March 2025 and October 2025. The upcoming DA hike, which will be effective from January 1, 2025, is expected to be announced around Holi in March. However, no official announcement has been made on this yet. But if the news coming from media reports and sources is to be believed, central government employees and pensioners may get good news before Holi 2025. DA is given to government employees, while DR is given to pensioners.
Will there be good news before Holi?
Let us tell you that this year Holi is falling on 14 March 2025. In such a situation, it is believed that the government can announce an increase in the Dearness Allowance of Central employees before Holi. This increase in DA is being done to provide relief from inflation, which will increase the salary of employees and pension of pensioners.
Twice a year
Under the 7th Pay Commission, dearness allowance is increased twice a year. The first increase comes into effect from January 1 and the second is effective from July 1. In the last DA hike in October 2024, central government employees got a DA hike of 3 per cent from July 1, 2024. After the hike, DA increased from 50 per cent to 53 per cent of the basic salary. Pensioners also got the same increase in dearness relief.
7th Pay Commission: How much will the salary increase?
According to the expectations of the employee union, this time the central government can announce a 3-4 percent DA hike for the employees around Holi in March 2025. On this DA hike, the salary of the entry level employees of the central government will increase in the range of Rs 540-720 per month from January 1, 2025. Let us tell you that the basic salary of entry level employees is around Rs 18,000 per month.
If an employee’s salary is Rs 30,000 per month and basic salary is Rs 18,000, then he currently gets Rs 9,000 as dearness allowance. This is 50 percent of the basic salary. On the other hand, if there is a 3 percent increase in DA, then the dearness allowance of the employee will increase to Rs 9,540 per month, which is Rs 540 more than before. On the other hand, if there is a 4 percent increase in DA, then the dearness allowance of the employee will increase to Rs 9,720 per month.
DA Calculation: How is dearness allowance calculated?
DA and DR hike is decided on the basis of percentage increase in the 12 monthly average of All India Consumer Price Index (AICPI) for the period ending June 2022. Although the central government revises it every year on January 1 and July 1, the decision is usually announced in March and September. In 2006, the Central Government revised the formula for calculating DA and DR for central government employees and pensioners. A formula has been given for DA calculation.
Dearness Allowance Percentage= (Average of AICPI (Base Year 2001=100) for last 12 months -115.76)/115.76) *100
Now if we talk about dearness allowance for people working in PSU (Public Sector Units), then the method of its calculation is-
Dearness Allowance Percentage= (Average of Consumer Price Index of last 3 months (Base Year 2001=100)-126.33))x100.
