NEW DELHI, Oct 18: The union cabinet on Wednesday approved four per cent hike in Dearness Allowance to its one crore employees and pensioners and 78 days salary as bonus to over 11 lakh non-gazetted railway employees.
Briefing media persons on the cabinet meeting, union minister Anurag Thakur said the centre decided to increase DA by four percentage points from 42 to 46 per cent benefitting about one crore employees and pensioners. The decision to provide 78 days salary equivalent as bonus would bring cheers to 11.07 lakhs non-gazetted railway employees.
The dearness allowance for employees and pensioners is worked out on the basis of the latest Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) brought out by the Labour Bureau every month. Presently, the central government employees and pensioners are getting a 42% dearness allowance.
The last revision in DA was done on March 24, 2023, and was effective from January 1, 2023. The Centre had increased DA by four percentage points to 42% based on the percentage increase in the 12-month average of the All India Consumer Price Index for the period ending December 2022.
The DA is provided to employees and pensioners to compensate them for rising prices. The cost of living increases over a period of time and is reflected through CPI-IW. The allowance is revised periodically twice a year.
(Manas Dasgupta)