7th pay commission: Cabinet meet on March 16 to decide on DA hike? Know salary increase, arrears and other details

New Delhi: 7th pay commission latest update --The cabinet meeting regarding increase of dearness allowance of central government employees could take place on March 16, thus meaning that the Modi government will have a good Holi gift for the employees, as per media reports.

The DA of the Central government employees is expected to increase by an additional 3% from the current 31 percent to 34%. According to previous media reports, the government was to make an official statement any time before Holi. However a fresh report in Zeebiz is stating that a big decision on the same could infact come on March 16 i.e before Holi itself.

Based on the AICPI Index year 2001, in the Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers, there has been a decrease of one point in the index for December 2021. With this, the index has gone up to 361 points. The 12-month index average for dearness allowance stands at 351.33. So, based on this average index, the Dearness allowance stands at 34.04%. But since dearness allowance is calculated in round figure only, a total of 34% dearness allowance is what the central government might be getting for payment starting January 2022.

Few other media reports say that Central employees will be paid full payment of new DA along with the March salary after Holi. The employees will get the arrears for the last two months. So, assuming your basic salary is between Rs 18000 to Rs 56900 and you calculate DA at the rate of 34 percent, then your DA will turn out to be Rs 19,346 per month. At the same time, employees could also be getting Rs 17,639 as DA arrears.

The central employees are also waiting for the Modi government to announce a hike in the fitment factor which will in turn push the minimum wages of central employees higher. The central government employees unions have long been demanding for hiking  minimum pay of Rs 18,000 to Rs 26,000 and fitment factor be raised from 2.57 times to 3.68 times. According to media reports, the fitment factor of central employees can be decided soon. This means that there will be a big increase in the basic salary of the government employees.

If the government makes announcement regarding the hike in fitment factor of central employees, then their salary will consequently increase. In fact, with the increase in fitment factor, the minimum wage will also increase. Employees are currently getting salary under fitment factor on the basis of 2.57 percent, which if increased to 3.68 percent, there will be an increase of Rs 8,000 in the minimum salary of the employees. This means the minimum pay of the central government employees will be hiked from Rs 18,000 to Rs 26,000.