7th Pay Commission Latest News: The Union Cabinet had, in March 2020, approved the release of additional instalment of DA to central government employees.
The year 2021 has brought with it double dose of good news for around 48 lakh central government employees and over 65 lakh central government pensioners. According to media reports, the first is a 4 per cent hike in dearness allowance from this month which means that more salary will be credited to the accounts of central government employees.
The 4 per cent hike will increase the DA from the current 17 per cent to 21 per cent. However, an official announcement from the government about the date when the additional hike will be introduced is still awaited. The Union Cabinet had, in March 2020, approved the release of additional instalment of DA to central government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners with effect from January 1, 2020.
The finance ministry had then informed that there will be an increase of 4 per cent over the existing rate of 17 percent of the Basic Pay/Pension, to compensate for price rise. The Union Cabinet had also approved the release of DR (Dearness Relief) to the retired pensioners with effect from 1st January 2020.
This was expected to impact the central government exchequer by nearly Rs 12,510 crore per annum (DA) and about Rs 14,595 crore (DR) in FY 2020-21 (for a period of 14 months from January, 2020 to February, 2021). The dearness allowance is given to the central government employees to help them bear with their expenses keeping inflation in mind. It is announced twice a year, first instalment from January to June and the second one from July to December. On January 1, Union Minister Jitendra Singh had said that the change will bring a huge relief to the young Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) personnel including Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Border Security Force (BSF), among others.
