The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the release of an additional instalment of dearness allowance (DA) to Central government employees and dearness relief (DR) to pensioners, effectively giving an increase of 3%.
The Cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the amount that would lead to an increase of 3% over the existing rate of 31% of basic pay or pension with effect from January 1, to “compensate for price rise,” a government statement said.
“This increase is in accordance with the accepted formula, which is based on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission. The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both DA and DR would be ₹9,544.50 crore per annum. This will benefit about 47.68 lakh Central government employees and 68.62 lakh pensioners,” the government said.