7th Pay Commission Update: Big News for Government Employees! DA Hiked by 5 percent

Good news for lakhs of government employees. The Chhattisgarh government has increased the DA or Dearness Allowance of government employees by 5%. The revision in the Dearness Allowance for government employees in Chhattisgarh will be applicable from 1^st May 2022.

DA Hiked to 22%

The state government had announced the hike in DA on May 1 - on the occasion of International Labour Day 2022.

Bhupesh Baghel, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister announced this through a Twitter post.  He tweeted in Hindi saying, "A big decision was taken today in the interest of government employees. I announce the increment in the DA or Dearness Allowance of government employees by 5 percent. The new rate will be applicable from 1 May”.

The dearness allowance of state government employees which was earlier 17% has now reached 22% after the increment.

This decision by the Chhattisgarh government has come after the long-standing demand of the officials as well as employees of the state to make their Dearness Allowance equivalent to that of the central government employees.

Mahendra Singh Rajput, the President of Chhattisgarh Ministerial Employees Union, had pointed out that the DA in Chhattisgarh was 17% whereas the central government employees are receiving a 34 % dearness allowance. Last month, the state government employees held several protests & demonstrations against low DA.

What is Dearness Allowance and how it is calculated

Dearness Allowance or DA is basically the cost-of-living adjustment allowance that the government pays to its employees of the public sector as well as pensioners.

The method to calculate DA was changed in 2006 by the Government. Currently, DA is calculated as per the following formula - For the employees of the Central Government % of DA = {(Avg. of All-India Consumer Price Index (Base year -2001 =100) for past 12 months -115.76)/115.76} x 100. On the other hand, for Central Public Sector Employees % of DA = {(Avg. of All-India Consumer Price Index (Base year -2001 =100) for past 3 months -126.33)/126.33} x 100

Earlier, in the month of March this year, the Central Government had approved a 3% hike each in the Dearness Allowance (DA) as well as Dearness Relief (DR) for the Central government employees – providing a big relief from inflation.

7th Pay Commission Latest Update

Central Government employees and pensioners may get another relief from rising inflation. According to reports, the Central Government may once again increase the Dearness Allowance (DA) for central employees and pensioners in July.