Central Government unlikely to announce Dearness Allowance in January

All the Central Government employees, who are waiting for the government to announce the Dearness Allowance in January, may be in for disappointment.

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: All those central government employees unhappy with the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission on salary hike, may be waiting for the Labour Ministry to announce the All India Consumer Price Index or AICPIN (for Industrial workers) for the month of December in January.

On the basis of AICPIN, government announces the Dearness Allowance( DA) for Central Government employees. The DA is paid to Central Government employees to adjust the cost of living and to protect their Basic Pay on account of inflation.

After all its a matter of one's monthly salary hikes! It is not unfair to hope that AICPIN for December is high, resulting in the DA higher than 125%, which the 7th CPC pegged for calculating the minimum pay determination and the fitment factor for the new pay structure. 

The government reviews the DA every six months. The Cabinet, in September, had approved a proposal to hike dearness allowance by 6 percent to 119 percent of the basic pay, effective from July 1, 2015.

if the DA announced in January is higher than 125%, government will be compelled to revise the new salaries.

Since the 7th PC has already merged the DA with the new pay, government is unlikely to announce DA in January 2016 at all. 

When the 6th Pay Commission’s recommendations were implemented from January 2006 onwards, the DA for the months of January 2006 to June 2006 was not paid. DA was issued only from the month of June 2006.