7th Pay Commission: Relief for central government employees, bounty in September

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The wallet of a government employee is set to become heavier in September. The freeze on Dearness Allowance (DA)/Dearness Relief (DR) of about 52 lakh central government employees and 60 lakh pensioners has been removed and will get it along with arrears in September.

Due to the debilitating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, DA and DR of central employees and pensioners were put on hold . National council (Staff side) JCM Secretary Shiv Gopal Mishra said that along with the three installments (January 2020, July 2020 and January 2021), the employees will also get DA/DR for July 2021. The arrears of the frozen installments will not be given now, but the arrears of the DA amount due for July-August 2021 will be given.

The DA math

Central employees and pensioners get an increased installment of Dearness Allowance (DA) in January and July every year. At present, the central government employees are getting dearness allowance at the rate of 17%. If DA was not banned, DA would have increased by 4% in January 2020, 3% in June 2020 and 4% in January 2021.

If these three installments are 11% and the expected installment for July is 4%, then the total increase will be 32% with an increase of 15%. This rate will be implemented from July, but payment will come in September salary.

Arrears quagmire

Till now, the payment of arrears has not been agreed. Mishra said all the employees have contributed one day’s salary/pension and it is not appropriate on the government’s part to block the arrears.

” The government should pay the arrears. Negotiations on arrears will continue,” he said.