Union government recently increased the DA and Dearness Relief (DR) of central government employees and pensioners after over one and half years.

In a good news for lakhs of Central government employees and pensioners, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government recently increased the Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) of central government employees and pensioners after over one-and-half-year.

“Govt led by PM @NarendraModiji has approved an increase in Dearness Allowance to Central Govt. employees & Dearness Relief to pensioners to 28%, representing an increase of 11% over the existing rate of 17% of the Basic Pay/Pension,” Union minister Piyush Goyal wrote on Twitter.

Look at the changes that Central government employees need to know:

1. DA hike from 17% to 28% The Union government has approved th DA hike of 28 per cent from 17 per cent. It is to be noted that Central government employees have been receiving 17 per cent DA since July, 2019 as the DA was frozen in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic.

2. DA Restoration As per the Union government, the revised DA will be come into effect from July, 2021. It means that a central government employee will see a hike of 11 per cent in his take-home salary. The DA from January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021 will however remain at 17 per cent as the employees will not get any arrears for this period.

3. Change in salary Since th DA is linked to the basic salary, a hike in DA will have a significant effect on the salary of Central government employee and the salary will increase considerably.

4. DA hike to change PF, gratuity The DA hike will also change the monthly provident fund (PF) and gratuity amount of the central government employees. This means that PF, Travel Allowance and gratuity will go up for the employees and the pensioners.

5. LTA claim In a amajor relief for Central government employees, the Union government has recently extended the timeline for submission of bills to claim Leave Travel Concession (LTA) beyond May 31. “Representations have been received in this Department to extend the date of settlement of bills/claims beyond 31.05.2021 in view of the situation existing due to the Covid-19 and difficulties being faced in settling the claims/bills. It has been decided that Ministries/Departments may consider settlement of those claims/purchases made on or before 31.03.2021 beyond the due date i.e. 31.05.2021,” the ministry of finance said in a statement.