Da hike: The government had banned 3 installments of dearness allowance/inflation relief for central employees and pensioners during 2020 and 2021 Corona. After the epidemic ended, Employees Union and Employee Representative Bodies continued to pressurize the Center to release 18 months dues due to the DA stopped during the epidemic.
This issue was also raised several times in Parliament, but the Modi government said that it cannot give DA dues to employees due to economic instability.
Why did the government stop DA/DR Hike during Kovid-19
When the country had the first wave of Kovid-19 in March 2020, the government postponed the decision to increase the DA and DR of central government employees and pensioners to reduce the pressure on the financial situation.
Subsequently, DA-DR hike was stopped in three installments-January 2020, July 2020 and January 2021. The restriction remained for 18 months for a total of 18 months.
Expectations and government’s attitude to government employees
Given the improvement in the situation of Corona, the employees hoped that the government would release the 18 -month stalled DA dues.
Many times employee organizations also raised this demand. But whenever this question was asked in every Parliament session, the government gave the same answer – there is no plan to give dues.
Recently, in the Lok Sabha session, Minister of State in the Finance Ministry Pankaj Chaudhary reiterated the same in response to MP Anand Bhadoria’s question. He said that this step was taken to reduce the financial burden during the epidemic. At the moment, the government is not considering giving this arrears.
He also said that the fiscal deficit of the government had reached 9.2 per cent in FY 2020-21 during the epidemic. However, now in the budget estimate of FY 2025-26, it has come down to 4.4 percent. Despite this, the government said that DA-DR installments will no longer be given at that time.
What is the status of DA now?
Central government employees and pensioners get DA-DR installments every 6 months. Currently DA is at 55%. The upcoming amendment period (July-December 2025) is expected to increase by 3% to 58%. This amendment is likely to be implemented around Diwali.