Finance Ministry’s Orders on 10% DA Expected Shortly!

 Finance Ministry’s Orders on 10% DA Expected Shortly!

At the Cabinet Committee meeting that was held on 28/02/2014, approval was given for a 10% hike in the Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief for Central Government employees and pensioners. Nearly a month has passed but the Finance Ministry has still not issued relevant orders to the departments concerned.

Despite the consent of the Cabinet Committee, the enhanced amount of DA will be given only after the Finance Minister issues the orders. The month of March ends on Monday and orders will have to be issued before then. Only then will the employees receive the DA amount for the month of March along with the month’s salary. Since all the banks will remain closed on the 2nd due to Annual closing of accounts, it will be available only on Tuesday, the 3rd.

Since all the DDOs under Central Government have been computerized and since DA calculation is a routine task, they would immediately take action as soon as they receive the fax. Moreover, in the press release announcing the Cabinet Committee’s approval, certain terms were clearly added that the “Cabinet approved the proposal to release an additional installment of Dearness Allowance (DA) to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners with effect from 01.01.2014, in cash, but not before the disbursement of the salary for the month of March 2014 at the rate of 10 percent increase over the existing rate of 90 percent”.

If the Finance Ministry fails to issue the orders before the end of this month, then 3 months’ arrears will be given in April.

Since “50% DA Merger” is not going to happen now, orders are expected regarding 25% increase in some specific allowances. One of these allowances is the “Children Education Allowance and Hostel Subsidy”. Last time, when DA touched 50%, the subsidy was increased from 12,000 to 15,000. Similarly, this time, it is expected to rise by 25% from 15,000 to 18,750.