Amid rising inflation, 48 lakh Central government employees and 67 lakh pensioners may get a hike in their dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR), which is likely to be announced in July. The DA is announced twice a year. It was first announced in January this year. According to reports, the government may factor in the rising retail inflation which was estimated at 7.04 percent in May.

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Dearness Allowance (DA) is given to government employees and dearness relief (DR) is received by pensioners.

Recent hikes

Earlier, the announcement regarding DA was made in March and September every year. However, there was a gap of one-and-a-half years after December 31, 2019, as no hike or change was affected in the DA amount due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The DA hike was restarted in July last year. Based on the 7th Pay Commission's recommendations, DA for all Central government employees and DR for pensioners were hiked in July 2021 to 28 percent from 17 percent.

The next hike was made in October 2021, and the DA was increased by 3 percent effective from July 1, 2021. Because of this, all government employees started receiving DA at the rate of 31 percent from July 1, 2021.

After that another 3 percent hike was announced on January 1, 2022, government employees have been receiving DA at 34 per cent rate.

The upcoming hike

The Centre is likely to raise DA by another 5 percent from July onwards, according to media reports. As the All India Consumer Price Index (AICPI) jumped to 127.7 points in April, the data of May and June will be closely watched as it will influence the DA hike. As per a Times Now report, if the figures in those months remain above 127, the DA may be hiked by five percent.

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(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)