In what might be called as good news for Central government employees as they are likely to get big pay hike as the government has hinted that it will increase dearness allowance (DA) from July 1, 2019.
According to Zee Business, this increase is estimated to be from 4 to 5 percent. Notably, if the increase is 4 percent, it will boost the salaries of the central government employees anything from Rs 720 to Rs 10,000 per month depending on seniority and other relevant factors. Harishankar Tiwari, Assistant Secretary General of All India Audit and Accounts Association, who did the Dearness Allowance (DA) calculations at AG Office Brotherhood too, told Zee Business online that as soon as the data of All India Consumer Price Index (AICPI) comes for June month, it will be clear as to what percentage of DA increase will take place for central government employees drawing salaries based on 7th pay commission.
After the increase, the DA of Level 1 to Level 18 officials will increase in the equal proportion as per their pay level. Notably, Level 1 is the entry level of government service, while Level 18 is the highest category. The basic salary of Level 1 entry level official is Rs 18,000 per month is fixed, this happened after the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission. On the other hand, pay Level 18 officers get salary of Rs 2.50 lakh per month, and under this category comes the Cabinet Secretary.
What is Dearness Allowance (DA)?
The Dearness Allowance (DA) is a cost of living adjustment allowance paid to Government employees, Public sector employees (PSE) and pensioners in India. Employees of public sector receive basic salaries as per their pay scale. Upon the basic salary, several other components are calculated and added to make for the take-home amount. One of the components of the salary for a public sector employee is the Dearness Allowance or DA. The Dearness allowance meaning is a fixed percentage of the person’s basic salary that is added to the basic pay to calculate the gross salary.
The Government of India pays DA to all public sector employees, and pensioners towards "cost of living adjustments". Dearness Allowance in India was launched with the intention to hedge the impact of inflation. As the impact of the inflation differs from a location to another, the dearness allowance calculator takes into account the location an employee is employed at. It is based on the salaried individual’s presence in semi-urban sector, rural sector to the urban sector.