In a recent development, the Dearness Allowance (DA) has been hiked for certain central government employees who are taking salaries as per the 5th, 6th, and 7th pay commissions, as per the announcement by the Department of Public Enterprises of the Finance Ministry announced through an office memorandum dated November 7, 2024.
How Does This Hike Affect The Government Employees?
As per this new announcement, the DA is now raised by 246% for the basic pay of the 6th Central Pay Commission.
Earlier, it was compared to 239%, with the newly revised rate being effective from July 1, 2024.
Similarly, the DA is 455% for the 5th Pay Commission which was earlier and is applicable from July 1, 2024.
In case of the 7th Central Pay Commission, the DA has been increased from 50% to 53% and will be applicable from July 1, 2024.
It appears that the government employees will also receive the arrears from July 1, as applicable.
What Is DA & How Does It Affect The Salary?
For the unaware, DA is always calculated according to the employee’s basic pay.
To understand this, let’s take a simple example, for instance a central government employee’s basic pay is ₹43,000 per month as per the 6th pay commission.
Now as per the new DA, it would be ₹1,05,780 as the rate is 246%, compared to ₹1,02,770 earlier when the DA used to be 239%.
Let’s go through the basics of the Dearness Allowance (DA), it is a part of the salary of the government employees and pensioners.
Its aim is to adjust the total salary for inflation, so that the rising costs of living can be accommodated for.
As we know that the government revises the DA two times a year and its timing falls once in January and once in July.
When it comes to the how much part, it basically varies based on the pay commission and also on whether they work in the urban, semi-urban, or rural sector.
