Dearness Allowance payment of 18-month arrears: Will Govt release DA/DR frozen during Covid?

Central Government’s latest statement on payment of Dearness Allowance (DA)/DR arrears: The Union Government has received several representations regarding the release of arrears of 18 months of Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) payable to Central Government Employees and Pensioners.

However, the Government has not confirmed whether it is considering the release of the DA/DR arrears. Instead, in a written reply to a query in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday (13th December), the Finance Ministry said that the release of arrears of DA/DR “was not considered feasible”.

“Several Representations regarding the release of arrears of 18 months of DA/DR payable to Central Government employees/pensioners have been received from various Central Government employees/pensioners’ associations such as National Council (JCM), National Federation of Indian Railway Men (NFIR), All India Railway Men’s Federation (AIRF), All India Retired Railway Men’s Federation (AIRRF), JCOs/OR Veterans Association (JAVA), Bhartiya Railway Karamchari Union (BRKU), Bhartiya Pension Manch, National Ex-Servicemen Coordination Committee and Veteran Association etc,” Pankaj Chaudhary, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance said.

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Chaudhary was replying to a query on whether the Government has received several representations regarding the release of arrears of Dearness Relief to Central Government pensioners of 18 months i.e. from January 2020 to June 2021.

Not feasible to release DA/DR arrears

Replying to another query on “whether the Government is sincerely considering the release of 18 months’ arrears to pensioners”, the Minister said that the release of arrears of DA/DR was not considered feasible.

“The decision to freeze three instalments of DA/DR to Central Government employee/pensioners due from 01.01.2020, 01.07.2020 & 01.01.2021 was taken in the context of COVID-19 which caused economic disruption so as to ease pressure on Government finances. As the adverse financial impact of pandemic in 2020 and the financing of welfare measures taken by Government had a fiscal spill over beyond Financial Year 2020-21, release of arrears of DA/DR was not considered feasible,” the Minister said.