7th Pay Commission: 1 Crore Govt Employees, Pensioners Can Get DA Hike Before Holi; Raise From 31% To 34%

If reports are to be believed, then the central government employees might have something to cheer about ahead of Holi as the government intends to increase the Dearness Allowance of these employees this month itself.

DA Increase

Effective January 1, 2022, the government will reportedly increase the DA by 3 percent. In the month of March, the employees are expected to receive the increased salary, along with arrears for January and February.

Central government employees receive DA at 31 percent currently and once it is raised by 3 percent, the allowance will stand at 34 percent.

Why DA is given? How It Is Calculated?

To offset the inflationary impact, the Dearness Allowance (DA) is provided to the central government employees. It is revised twice a year – in January and July. Depending on the location i.e. urban, semi-urban, or the rural sector DA varies.

More than 1 crore government employees and pensioners shall benefit if the DA is incremented by the government. Currently, there are 48 lakh employees and 65 lakh pensioners.

The DA of these employees has been increased from 28 percent to 31 percent in October last year, despite the Covid pandemic.

There is no official announcement from the government as of now, even as reports suggest an increase in DA this month.

For long now, the central employees are demanding to increase their fitment factor from current 2.57 percent to 3.68 percent. If the fitment factor is increased, the salary of the employees will go up by Rs 8,000 – from Rs 18,000 to Rs 26,000 per month.

Under 7th CPC, DA for the central government employees is calculated as:

Dearness Allowance percentage = ((Average of AICPI (Base Year 2001=100) for the past 12 months -115.76)/115.76) x 100.

Here, AICPI stands for All-India Consumer Price Index.