Dearness allowance hiked to 31% for central government employees

• The union cabinet has approved the proposal to hike the dearness allowance of the central government employees and pensioners by 3%.
• The increase in allowance amount will benefit 1.13 crore central government employees.
• The hike in DA will incur ₹9,488 crore in expenses to the government, said Union Minister Anurag Thakur.

The union government has on Thursday approved a 3% hike in dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) for central government employees.

The new rate of dearness allowance will now be 31% from 28% earlier. The increase in allowance amount will benefit 1.13 crore central government employees including 47.14 lakh central government employees and 68.62 lakh pensioners.

Union Minister Anurag Thakur announced the development will cost ₹9,488 crore to the government. The new rate will be applicable from July 2021.

Dearness Allowance means an allowance paid by the government to its employees as well as pensioners to curb the impact of inflation.

Prior to this, the Centre had approved an increase in DA and DR given to central government employees and pensioners from 17% to 28%.

Earlier in July 2021, dearness allowance and dearness relief rates were hiked from 17% to 28%.

Reportedly, the government had temporarily halted these allowances in 2020 due to a shortfall in revenue collection after the COVID-19 pandemic devastated the economy.

SEE ALSO: India’s mutual fund industry gets its hands on blockbuster IPOs like Paras Defence and others for ₹1500 crore in September

Twitter launches live scorecard for cricket, announces first community in India for cricket fans