The Central government has announced to restore Dearness Allowance (DA) benefits for its employees and pensioners. Union Minister Anurag Thakur said that the Cabinet has approved to increase the DA from 17 per cent to 28 per cent. The hike will come into effect from July 1, 2021.
“The Dearness Allowance (DA) for Central Government and pensioners employees has been increased from 17% to 28%. This will be applicable from 1st July 2021,” he said.
The DA is a part of the salary given to government employees and pensioners. Notably, the payment of DA of employees has not been revised since January 2020.
Earlier, the Joint Council Machinery for Central Government Employees (JCM) had cleared the proposal for hiking DA. It consists of representatives of employees unions as well as senior government officials. The JCM is headed by the Cabinet Secretary.
The Centre had in April last year decided to freeze DA with effect from January 1, 2020, to divert funds to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
