The Central government today approved a 4 per cent hike in dearness allowance. With that, DA and relief being paid to government employees will be 46 per cent from earlier 42 per cent. The DA hike will be implemented from July 1, 2023.Along with the DA hike, the Cabinet has also approved Productivity Linked Bonus (PLB) bonus for railways employees, which is equivalent to 78 days of pay.The government will hold a press conference today in New Delhi at 3 PM to give further details about the hike.
The hiked DA rates will be given to the central government employees with their October salaries. Since the new DA hike will be counted from July, employees will get arrears for July, August, and September with their October salaries. As many as 48 lakh current central government employees and 65 lakh pensioners will be the beneficiery of this hike. The government will have to spend Rs 17,000 crore extra to cover the expenses of the increased DA percentage. Dearness Allowance (DA) of central employees is determined by the Consumer Price Index of Industrial Workers (AICPI-IW). The formula for calculating DA is fixed.