According to reports, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre is set to increase the Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) for lakhs of its employees and pensioners. It may be recalled that a few weeks ago the Centre had restored the proposal of giving central government employees the DA and DR hike from 17 per cent to 28 per cent with effect from July 1, 2021.
This is a season of multiple bonanzas for the Central government employees. They are going to get 3% DA hike ahead of the festive season, various media reports claimed to cite government sources. This additional DA hike will be given to them just months after their DA was restored from 17 per cent to 28 per cent with effect from July 1, 2021.
“The Central government has decided to increase the dearness allowance for central government employees and pensioners by 11% to 28%,” I&B Minister Anurag Thakur had said announcing the DA hike.
It is learnt that the Centre is now planning to hike the DA and DR by 3 per cent, which means that the central government employees and pensioners could receive DA and DR up to 31 per cent.
Apart from DA and DR, the Central government employees will also get increased House Rent Allowance (HRA). It must be noted that the HRA automatically gets increased once DA increases to more than 25 per cent. The Central employees have already started getting the benefit of increased HRA.
Another big development happened for the Central government employees. Their family pension limit has also been increased from Rs 45000 to Rs 1.25 lakh. The move from the Centre was taken to support the family members of deceased employees and to provide enough financial assistance to them.
The Central government had in June 2020 introduced the House Building Advance (HBA) to provide loans at cheaper interest rates to the government employees intending to construct their houses.
