7th Pay Commission News: Days after the Lok Sabha poll results, the West Bengal government has increased the dearness allowance for over a million government employees in the state. The DA is hiked by 4% to 42% and will be effective from April 1, which means employees will also get 2 months’ arrear when they receive the June month’s salary.
Earlier, it was announced that the DA hike will be implemented from May 2024 but now it is effective from April.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya had announced in the state budget about the increment in the DA for the employees. “They will get it from the salary of June 1,” news agency PTI quoted an official of the state finance department as saying.
The Sikkim government has also approved a proposal to hike DA by 4% for its employees and pensioners. The dearness allowance raise is being implemented retrospectively from July 1, 2023, a PTI report said citing officials.
This DA hike decision was taken at the first cabinet meeting of the second Sikkim Krantikari Morcha government on Monday evening. The meeting was presided over by Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang.
After 4% DA hike, the dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners in Sikkim has gone up to 46%. The DA hike will cost the state exchequer Rs 174.6 crore in the current financial year, the report said.
DA hike for central government employees
The central government employees are now expecting their second DA hike of the year. Dearness allowance of central government staff was raised by 4% to 50% in March this year. The hike was effective from January 2024. The Centre revises DA twice in a year, first for the January-June period and second for July-December.
The next DA hike announcement is expected around Diwali this year. However, over 50 lakh central government employees and over 68 lakh pensioners will get the arrears, effective July 2024.
Furthermore, there have been speculations suggesting that the government might merge the DA into the basic pay as it will now breach the 50% mark after the next hike. In 2004 during the 5th Pay Commission term, when the DA had touched the 50% ceiling, the Centre had merged it into the basic pay. This was the only instance when the DA got merged into the basic pay. Thereafter, the 6th Pay Commission did not recommend any such measures.
DA hike calculation
The DA for employees and Dearness Relief for pensioners are calculated based on the All-India Consumer Price Index (AICPI). The government revises DA and DR twice in a year, in January and July, respectively.
Dearness Allowance % = ((Average of AICPI (Base Year – 2001=100) for the past 12 months -115.76)/115.76) *100