Central Employees DA release not discussed in cabinet meeting

New Delhi: The release of Dearness Allowance (DA) did not figure in the Union Cabinet on Wednesday, despite media saying earlier that it would raise the issue in the meeting.

The cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, discussed only the controversial issue of land ordinance, which was allowed to lapse on August 31 at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi official residence, 7, Race Course Road (RCR) here.

“The Union Cabinet today gave its approval to an order issued by government on August 28 to extend the provisions of compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement available to farmers under the 2013 Land Acquisition Act to 13 other central laws as well,” a senior officer in the PMO said.

“The release of the Dearness Allowance (DA) was not discussed at all in the meeting,” the official told The Sen Times.

The government is likely to approve a hike in dearness allowance (DA) to 119 per cent from the existing 113 per cent, benefiting the around 30 lakh central government employees and 50 lakh pensioners including dependents.

“The average rate of retail inflation for industrial workers from July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015 works out to be 6.77 per cent. Thus the Central government will hike dearness allowance for it employees by 6 per cent,” an official of Finance Ministry said.

He further said the Finance Ministry will put a Cabinet proposal later in this month for approval of 6 per cent dearness allowance hike from July 1 this year as the revised Consumer Price Index number for Industrial Workers for June was released by Labour Ministry on July 31.

With increase in DA, the pensioners will also gain as the benefit provided to them as dearness relief will be hiked to 119 per cent of pension.

The central government in April hiked dearness allowance by 6 percent to 113 percent of the central government employees and pensioners’ basic pay with effect from January.

The increase is in accordance with the accepted formula based on the recommendations of the 6th Central Pay Commission, an official statement had said.

The release further said the combined impact on the exchequer on account of both DA and DR would be of the order of Rs 6,762.24 crore per annum, and Rs 7,889.34 crore in the 2015-16 (for a period of 14 months from January 2015 to February 2016).

TST

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10% DA hike for Central government employees

In a bonanza of sorts ahead of the festival season and in the wake of soaring prices, the Union Cabinet on Friday approved a double-digit increase in dearness allowance to 90 per cent, benefiting 50 lakh Central government employees and 30 lakh pensioners, with effect from July 1, 2013.

“The Cabinet approved the proposal to release an additional instalment of DA to Central government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners, in cash, at 10 per cent over the existing rate of 80 per cent,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari told reporters here.

An official statement said they were entitled to the hike in DA/DR at the rate of 90 per cent of the basic pay. The increase “is in accordance with the accepted formula based on the recommendations of the 6th Central Pay Commission.”

The impact on the exchequer would be about Rs. 10,879.60 crore per annum on account of DA and Rs. 7,253.10 crore on account of DR in the financial year 2013-14 (eight months from July 2013 to February 2014).

Significantly, the double-digit increase in DA has come after a gap of about three years. Since the government uses CPI-IW (Consumer Price Inflation – Industrial Workers) data for the previous 12 months to arrive at a figure for computation of any increase in DA instalment, the percentage hike is based on the retail inflation data for July 2012-June 2013.

The previous DA hike of 10 per cent was in September 2010 when the government announced an additional instalment given with effect from July 1 that year.

In April this year, the government announced DA increase from 72 to 80 per cent with effect from January 1, 2013.

Source: thehindu.com
[http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/10-da-hike-for-central-government-employees/article5151018.ece]

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