7th Pay Commission: Ahead of 3% DA hike, here’s looking at recently announced benefits for Central govt employees

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The Central government is all set to increase the DA and DR for government employees again. 

New Delhi: The Central government recently restored the dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) for lakhs of government employees and pensioners to 28% of their basic pay from the 17% rate. 

Now, the government is all set to increase the DA and DR for government employees again. This time, the rate could be increased by 3%. This means that central government employees and pensioners could soon receive DA and DR equivalent to 31% of their basic pay. 

The Central government is now also increasing the House Rent Allowance (HRA). Usually, HRA automatically gets increased once DA increases to more than 25%. So, with the revision of the DA, HRA is now also expected to increase 3% anytime soon. 

All the employees have started getting the benefit of increased HRA. Therefore, according to the category of the city, employees have started to receive 27 per cent, 18 percent and 9 per cent HRA. 

HRA is credited into the bank accounts of central government employees based on the class of cities – X, Y and Z. Central government employees in the X category will now get more than Rs 5400 per month HRA. Employees in the Y class and Z class category will receive about Rs 3600 per month and Rs 1800 per month as HRA, respectively. 

Meanwhile, the Central government has also increased the family pension limit from Rs 45,000 to Rs 1.25 lakh. The decision is aimed at bringing “ease of living” for the family members of the deceased employees and would provide adequate financial security to them.

Moreover, in June 2020, the Central government also announced the House Building Advance (HBA) scheme to provide loans at cheaper rates to government employees who are planning to construct their houses. Central government employees can get loans at a 7.9% interest rate.

In another good news for pensioners, the government has also started sharing pension slips via SMS, Email and WhatsApp directly on pensioners’ registered details to convenience to pensioners.