7th Pay Commission Latest News: Giving big relief, the Centre last month had announced increase in the Dearness Allowance (DA) as well as the Dearness Relief (DR) for all of its central government employees from July 1, 2021. As per the announcement, the DA has been increased from the current 17 per cent to 28 per cent. However, there are indications that there is a possibility for the Centre to approve the Dearness Allowance for June as well, according to reports.
Various media portals have reported that the Centre is likely also approve a DA hike of another 3 per cent soon. It was also mentioned that the announcement will likely come soon. If this the DA is hiked again, it would mean that the Dearness Allowance for central government employees will see an overall increase that will leave it standing at 31 per cent along with a possible increase in salaries as well.
It must be noted that the Dearness Allowance was increased in in January of 2020 where the government hiked it by 4 per cent, which was followed by another 3 per cent increase in June in the same year. And the DA once again was hiked of 4 per cent. If it goes up again, it will reach the 31 per cent mark.
However, the Central government recently made it clear that it will not pay for any DA arrears for the period between January 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021. With the hike in the DA rates, the benefits will reach nearly 48 lakh central government employees and 65 lakh pensioners across the country.
After the Centre announced the hike, several states recently also increased their DA rates for their respective states. These states include Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Haryana, Karnataka and Rajasthan.
It must be noted that the Dearness Allowance is an important part of an employee’s salary who works for the government. The DA hike serves the purpose of helping employee or pensioner to cope up with the rising rates of inflation at this time of pandemic.