New Delhi. The central government announced a three percent increase in Dearness Allowance (DA) on Wednesday. It will be effective from July 1, 2024. This will benefit more than one crore employees and pensioners before the Diwali festival. The Cabinet has approved an increase of three percent in Dearness Allowance (DA) of Central Government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) for pensioners on their basic salary/pension before Diwali.
Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnav informed about the decisions taken in the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also wished Diwali to all the central government employees and pensioners. He said that the DA/DR increase will be effective from July 1, 2024. Earlier in March, the government had increased DA/DR by four percentage points to 50 percent from January 1, 2024.
The minister said the DA hike is based on the 12-month average of All India Consumer Price Index-Industrial Workers.
He said that the increase in DA/DR will put an additional burden of Rs 9,448 crore on the government exchequer. This increase is under the approved formula which is based on the recommendations of the Seventh Central Pay Commission. This will benefit about 49.18 lakh central government employees and 64.89 lakh pensioners.