THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The salary revision for state government employees was last implemented in 2021. Dearness allowance (DA) was never allowed in the state after that. There will be changes in DA every six months. In July, the central government sanctioned an additional 4% DA, while the state sanctioned a proportionate 3%. Adding that, the total arrears came to 18%.

DA will be fixed in proportion to the basic pay. According to this, a last grade employee with a basic pay of Rs 23,700 who joins the government service will now get only Rs 1659 as DA. It will be Rs 7074 for secretariat assistant and Rs 22,266 for additional secretary. If the last grade employee pays all the DA dues in cash, he will get a sum of Rs 52,000. In case of additional secretary, it will be more than Rs 2 lakhs. Pensioners will also have to be paid proportionate DA dues. There are 55182 people in gazetted rank, 4,59,842 in non-gazetted rank and 5.12 lakh pensioners.

It was said that the arrears of the 11th Pay Commission would be merged into the PF account in four installments, but this did not happen. The merger of the first two installments was postponed citing financial crisis. There are allegations that the employees have also lost the eligible interest due to this. Rs 14000 crore have to be found to pay this amount.