Like previous years, this year also DA hike was announced in March. The government announced a 4% hike in dearness allowance and dearness relief for employees and pensioners. With this hike, the DA stands at 50% of the basic pay, against 46% earlier.
Every year, the Centre announces dearness allowance (DA) hike twice: usually in March and again in September or October. However, more than one crore central government employees and pensioners are given the hike effective January and July every year, along with arrears.
Like previous years, this year also DA hike was announced in March. The government announced a 4% hike in dearness allowance and dearness relief for employees and pensioners. With this hike, the DA stands at 50% of the basic pay, against 46% earlier.
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Some govt staff await April pay change, despite DA hike in March
Since the announcement was made earlier in March this year, employees and pensioners were expecting an increase in their March month’s salary due to the DA hike. However, not all employees and pensioners received the revised pay in March; a section of them received the same salary as the previous month.
As this year, the announcement was made early in March, employees and pensioners were expecting their March month’s salary to come with an increased amount with a DA hike component. But all employees and pensioners have not received the March month’s pay with the revision and a section of them saw the same salary credited in their bank accounts. Now, those who have not received the DA hike and arrears are waiting for their April month salary, expecting an increase.
Santosh Sahu, a retired armed forces personnel, responded to a query about the DA hike, stating to FE Digital that he was expecting an increased pension for March, including arrears. However, to his disappointment, he did not receive the hiked pension. Nevertheless, he is hopeful that he would receive a revised pension for April along with the arrears for 3 months.
Like Sahu, many other pensioners whom FE Digital approached said that they are still awaiting the arrears from the DA hike and an increase in their monthly pension.
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Arrears deferred until March salary disbursement
The government while announcing the DA hike made it clear that arrears would not be paid before the March month’s salary disbursement.
“The payment of arrears of Dearness Allowance shall not be made before the date of disbursement of salary of March 2024,” according to an Office Memorandum (OM) released by the government.
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DA calculation
The DA is calculated based on the latest Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW), which is published monthly by the Labour Bureau under the Ministry of Labour.
Let’s take an example – suppose a central government employee gets a basic salary of Rs 50,000 per month. With DA rate of 46% of the basic pay, he was getting Rs 23,000 in dearness allowance. Now, as the DA has been revised to 50% of the basic pay, his DA comes to Rs 25,000. So, the salary gets increased by Rs 2,000 (Rs 25,000 – Rs 23,000).
The Expenditure Department of the Finance Ministry formulates a proposal to hike DA, along with its revenue implications, and presents the proposal to the Union Cabinet for approval.
When will be the next DA hike for central government employees?
Going by previous instances, the union government is expected to announce the next DA hike around Diwali this year in October.
