The Centre typically raises DA and DR for employees and pensioners twice a year, in January and July, with announcements usually made in early March and October.
7th Pay Commission News: Central government employees may have to wait a bit longer for their DA hike announcement. Media reports suggest that the government might announce the DA increase in the first week of September, which seems unlikely. According to a source, the government may prefer to announce the hike closer to the Haryana assembly election date to gain some political advantage. Haryana is scheduled to vote on October 5.
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If we look at trends from the past few years, the DA hike is announced every year a week or fortnight before the Diwali festival but this time it might be announced a bit early due to the elections. The Centre may announce a DA hike for central government staff and pensioners in the last week of September. Over 1 crore serving employees and pensioners might see their DA or dearness relief increase by up to 4%.
If the state assembly elections were not scheduled for early October, the DA hike might have been announced in October, possibly the second week, the source said. Historically, the Centre has made DA hike announcements close to Diwali, with January cycle hikes often announced around Holi in March.
The Centre typically raises DA and DR for employees and pensioners twice a year, in January and July, with announcements usually made in early March and October.
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When will employees and pensioners get DA arrears?
If the DA hike is announced by the end of September then the employees and pensioners can expect the hike to be implemented in the salary/pension of October month, which means the employees would received 3-month arrears, i.e. July to September.
What will be the DA hike for July-December period of 2024 for central government employees?
It is expected that there will be at least 3% hike in dearness allowance for government employees and dearness relief (DR) for pensioners. DA is given to serving employees in respective government departments and dearness relief to pensioners. The DA hike is calculated on the basis of All India Consumer Price Index (AICPI), which tracks the change in retail prices across various sectors.
How is DA calculated for central government employees?
The DA hike was earlier calculated based on the consumer price index with the base year 2001. The government, however, replaced it with a new consumer price index with the base year 2016 to calculate the DA from September 2020.
DA = (Avg of CPI-IW (base 2016=100) for the past 12 months x 2.88 -– 261.4)*100/(261.4))
From December 2023 to June 2024, CPI-IW has increased by 2.6 points from 138.8 to 141.4. As a result, DA hike percentage is likely to increase from 50.28% to 53.36%.
