7th Pay Commission: What is the Latest Update on the 18 Month DA Arrears?

Regarding the payment of arrears of 18 months' worth of Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) due to Central Government Employees and Pensioners, the Union Government has received a number of representations.

The release of the DA/DR arrears has not yet been officially considered by the government, though. Instead, the Finance Ministry stated in a written response to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday (December 13) that the release of DA/DR arrears "was not considered feasible."

"Several Representations regarding the release of arrears of 18 months of DNDR payable to Central Government employees/pensioners have been received from. various Central Government employees/pensioners' associations, such as National Council (JCM), National Federation of Indian Railway Men (NFIR), All India Railway Men's Federation (AIRF), and All India Retired Railway Men's Fed.," said Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary in response.

In response to a question on whether the government has received many comments regarding the release of Dearness Relief arrears to Central Government pensioners for the period of 18 months, from January 2020 to June 2021, Chaudhary provided this clarification.

In order to relieve pressure on the government's budget, he said, the decision to freeze three installments of DA/DR to Central Government employees and pensioners due on 01.01.2020, 01.07.2020, and 01.01.2021 was made in the context of COVID-19, which created economic disruption.

The release of DA/DR arrears was not deemed practicable, the minister stated, because of the negative financial impact of the pandemic in 2020 and the financing of the government's welfare initiatives, which had a budgetary impact beyond the Financial Year 2020–21.

In other news, the government has saved Rs 34,000 crore since it stopped paying the dearness allowance. Arrears in Dearness Allowance (DA) for employees and Deferred Retirement (DR) for federal government retirees are estimated to be around Rs 34,000 crore.

In the 32nd meeting of the Standing Committee on Voluntary Agencies for the review of pension rules, a representative of the Department of Expenditure (DOI) made it plain that arrears of earlier DA-DR will not be released. letting you know that the Union Ministry of Finance's DOI division