7th Pay Commission Latest News: Govt Hikes DA For Central Government Employees

Big news for central government employees and pensioners! The Union Cabinet has approved a hike of the Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) to the central government employees and pensioners. With this, the DA for central government employees will be 28%, up from 17%. Union Minister for I&B Anurag Thakur said the Cabinet has decided to increase the DA allowance by 11%. The revised DA hike will be effective from July 1, 2021.

PIB tweeted, "Cabinet approves increase in Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief with effect from 01.07.2021 to 28% representing an increase of 11% over the existing rate of 17% of the Basic Pay/Pension"

#Cabinet approves increase in Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief with effect from 01.07.2021 to 28% representing an increase of 11% over the existing rate of 17% of the Basic Pay/Pension#CabinetDecisions

Read: https://t.co/xn6jyIvNAO pic.twitter.com/wmay58OkST

— PIB India (@PIB_India) July 14, 2021

On July 14, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has chaired the Cabinet Committee and approved the increase of DA to central government employees and DR to pensioners. The revised DA hike will be an additional annual burden of approx 34,400 crore. In April 2020, the Finance Ministry had decided to hold the DA and DR hike due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The DA and DR hikes were frozen for four periods namely January 2020, July 2020, January 2021 and July 2021.

7th Pay Commission: Salary Change For Central Government Employees From April 1

The official statement reads, "In view of the unprecedented situation which arose due to the COVID-19 pandemic, three additional instalments of Dearness Allowance (DA) to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners, which were due from 01.01.2020, 01.07.2020 and 01.01.2021, had been frozen."

It added, "Now, the Government has decided to increase the Dearness Allowance to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief to pensioners with effect from 01.07.2021 to 28% representing an increase of 11% over the existing rate of 17% of the Basic Pay/Pension. The increase reflects the additional instalments arising on 01.01.2020, 01.07.2020 and 01.01.2021. The rate of Dearness Allowance/Dearness Relief for the period 01.01.2020 to 30.06.2021 shall remain at 17%"