Diwali gift for central govt employees and pensioners, DA hiked by 3%

NEW DELHI: The central government has announced an increase in the dearness allowance to the central government employees before Diwali. The union cabinet will increase the dearness allowance to employees and pensioners by 3%. With this, the dearness allowance will be 53 percent of the basic salary. With the increase of three percent, it is believed that central government employees will have a relief from the price hike.

An officer drawing a basic salary of Rs 40,000 will get an additional Rs 1,200 per month with a three per cent increase in DA. He will get Rs 21,200. The employees will get salary along with revised dearness allowance.

Pensioners will also get a proportionate increase in the pension available to them. A total of more than one crore people will be benefited. Earlier there was an increase in the dearness allowance in the month of March. There was an increase of 4% then. With this, about 50 percent of the basic salary has become DA.

The dearness allowance is an arrangement made by the government every two years to improve the standard of living of government employees in line with inflation. The government determines the dearness allowance based on the All India Consumer Price Index (AICPI).