In a major announcement, the Maharashtra Government also issued a notification announcing a hike from 28% to 31% of basic pay for its employees from January 1, 2022, along with the arrears pending from July 1, 2021.The revised DA will be paid in cash along with the salary of March this year. Nearly 17 lakh state government employees will benefit with Wednesday’s revision. The hike will be applicable to state government and other eligible employees. Dearness allowance is a component of government employees' and retirees' salaries that helps to offset the effects of inflation.
For central government employees, the increase in DA will be from the erstwhile 31 per cent of basic pay to 34 per cent. The state finance department deputy secretary VA Dhotre issued the government resolution which says that the DA will be paid as per the existing provisions and procedures to the government employees. The state government’s move has come at a time when for the second month in a row retail inflation is hovering above the Reserve Bank of India's target band of 2-6 per cent. This does not include the jump in oil prices caused by the Russia-Ukraine war.The Union government had frozen the hike in DA/DR from January 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021, due to the pandemic.