Good news! West Bengal govt announces additional 18% DA for state govt employees, to cost Rs 5000 crore

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday announced an additional 18% dearness allowance (DA) to the state government employees from January next.

She said that the state government has also decided to merge the 10% interim relief into the DA and the total DA of the state government employees will be 125% from January next. "Because I had made a commitment towards the state government employees. We are announcing it a bit early because we have to follow some planning. "We have decided to release additional 18% DA to the state government employees including teachers and non-teaching staff of educational institutions and employees of rural and urban local bodies. This will be effective from next January," Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat.

The state government will have to bear an annual additional expenditure of Rs 5,000 crore, she said. "With the release of additional 18% DA and merger of the interim relief, the total additional DA to the state government employees from next January will be 125%," Banerjee said.

"We are going through a very tight financial condition but despite that because I had promised our state government employees we have decided to release the additional 18% DA," she said. The chief minister said that the erstwhile Left Front government had managed to provide a 35% DA to the state government employees while her government despite financial crisis has given a hike of 90% DA. "We despite our financial crisis and repaying loan to the Centre and running several schemes like Sabujshree, Kanyashree have provided 90% DA to our employees," she stated.