Good news for central government employees! FinMin to release DA instalments

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New Delhi: The Finance Ministry is set to release three pending instalments of dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) from 1 July 2021, a move that would benefit 48 lakh central government employees and 65 lakh pensioners.

DA is paid to the central government employees twice a year and the instalments for 1 January 2020, 1 July 2020, and 1 January 2021 will be restored.

Minister of State (MoS) for Finance Anurag Thakur in a written reply to Rajya Sabha has said in order to cushion the impact of the pandemic, the Centre had decided to stop the DA instalments last year. The move added Rs 37,430.08 crore to the exchequer and the funds were utilised to counter the impact of the pandemic.

Currently, the central government employees are entitled to 17% DA. It came into effect from July 2019 and was revised upward by 4% in January 2020, 3% in June 2020. It was further increased by 4% in January 2021 to 28% of the basic pay. However, these revisions were suspended due to Covid.

While the government has agreed to restore the DA, employee unions have also raised the demand to release  arrears of 18 months, said AIRF general secretary Shiv Gopal Mishra.