It was reported that Centre would resume the DA from July 1 but later Finance Ministry posted tweet clarifying that no notice was issued by govt.
According to reports, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre is expected to restore the 7th pay commission Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) benefits for lakhs of central government employees in September.
Sources claimed that the decision to restore DA and DR benefits was taken during a meeting of the finance ministry officials, the National Council of Joint Consultative Machinery and the department of personnel and training few days ago.
Earlier, it was reported that the Union government would resume the DA from July 1 but later Finance Ministry posted a tweet clarifying that no notice was issued by the ministry regarding the resumption of DA for central government employees and pensioners from July 1.
“A document is doing rounds on social media claiming resumption of DA to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief to Central Government pensioners from July 2021. This OM is fake and no such OM has been issued by GOI," ministry of finance wrote.
1. What is Dearness Allowance (DA)?
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Dearness Allowance (DA) is a component of salary of government employees and pensioners and it is provided to help the employees bear the impact of inflation.
2. How does DA affect salary?
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It is to be noted that DA is directly related to cost of living and this is the reason why it varies from employee to employee based on their posting in urban sector, semi-urban sector or the rural sector.
3. DA revision
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DA is revised twice every year – in January and July. In 2006, the Centre decided to change the formula to calculate the dearness allowance for central government employees and pensioners.
4. How DA is calculated
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For the central government employees: Dearness Allowance % = ((Average of All-India Consumer Price Index (Base Year 2001=100) for the past 12 months -115.76)/115.76)*100
For Central public sector employees: Dearness Allowance % = ((Average of All-India Consumer Price Index (Base Year 2001=100) for the past 3 months -126.33)/126.33)*100
5. DA of Central government employees
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The DA of Central government employees is 17 per cent, which has been effective from July 2019. In April 2020, the Centre decided to freeze DA due to COVID-19 pandemic.
6. DA arrears
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The Centre also announced that no arrears will be paid from January 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021 but it was said by the Centre that any hike in DA due to revision on July 1, 2021, will take into account the previous hikes as well. Notably, the DA of the central government employees was raised by 4 per cent in January 2020, by 3 per cent in June 2020 and by 4 per cent in January this year.
