7th Pay Commission DA Hike: These state governments hike DA for employees to 28%

New Delhi: Jharkhand and Haryana government have announced hike in Dearness Allowance for its employees. The Jharkhand government on Tuesday announced hiking Dearness Allowance for state government employees from present 17 per cent to 28 percent while the Haryana government has increased the Dearness Allowance for pensioners and family pensioners from 17 percent to 28 percent.

The Jharkhand government’s decision which will be effective from July 1 was taken in the meeting of the state cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Hemant Soren. "Approval has been given to increase dearness allowance rates from 17 per cent to 28 per cent to the state government employees with effect from 1st July, 2021 in the revised pay scale (7th central pay scale) with effect from January 1, 2016," a state government spokesperson said addressing the media after the cabinet meeting.

This increase in Dearness Allowance announced by Haryana government will be applicable from July 1, 2021. In a letter issued by the Finance Department as per which the increased Dearness Allowance subsumes the additional instalments arising on January 1, 2020, July 1, 2020 and January 1, 2021.

The Centre on July 14 had announced to increase the rate of Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) for central employees after a gap of one-and-half years from 17 per cent to 28 per cent, benefiting nearly 1.14 crore employees and pensioners.

Consent has also been given to increase the rates of dearness relief to the pensioners/family pensioners of the state government with effect from 1st July 2021, the official said.

The Rajasthan government on July 14 had decided to increase the dearness allowance of state government employees and pensioners from 17 per cent to 28 per cent. The Karnataka government on July 26 had ordered releasing additional instalments of dearness allowance, revising it from the existing 11.25 per cent to 21.5 per cent for the period January 2020 to June 2021, which it had frozen in view of the crisis arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new rates of DA and DR, which will impose an annual burden of Rs 34,401 crore on the central exchequer, will come into effect from July 2021, Union Information and Broadcasting minister Anurag Singh Thakur had said.

With Agency Inputs