THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government has increased the bonus and festival allowance of employees. The bonus has been increased by Rs 500 and the festival allowance by Rs 250. With this, employees and teachers will get a bonus of Rs 4500.

Finance Minister KN Balagopal announced that the special festival allowance for those who are not eligible for a bonus will be increased from Rs 2750 to Rs 3000. The festival allowance of service pensioners has been increased by Rs 250 to Rs 1250. Those who retire under the participatory pension scheme will also get the festival allowance.

All government employees will be given an Onam advance of Rs 20,000. The advance for other employees, including part-time and contingent employees, will be Rs 6,000. The allowance has been increased by Rs 250 for all categories of employees, including contract scheme workers.