7th Pay Commission: Big Announcement, Allowances Increased for Employees

7th Pay Commission: After the bonanza given to the Central government employees in terms of Dearness Allowances (DA), the Uttar Pradesh government reportedly announced a hike in DA.

"As per the order, the payment of the due Dearness Allowance for the period of January 1, 2019 to February 28, 2019 will be done in cash as soon as possible in this Financial Year only. The DA for the month of March will be paid along with the salary in the month of April," ZeeBiz reported quoting an official notification of Uttar Pradesh government dated March 20.

The increase in DA will come into effect retrospectively from January 1, 2019. "The 10 per cent from the DA arrears of the employees covered under National Pension Scheme (NPS) will be deposited into their Tier- I pension account and the state government will also contribute a similar amount into the employees' pension accounts," the notification further read.

Earlier in February, the DA of the Central government employees was increased by 3 per cent effective from January 1, 2019, to “compensate” for price rise. This move of the Modi government will benefit 1.1 crore central government employees and pensioners.

This increase was in accordance with the accepted formula, which is based on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission, benefiting about 48.41 lakh central government employees and 62.03 lakh pensioners.

On the other hand, the CG employees are presently getting a minimum pay of Rs 18,000. They have been demanding a hike of Rs 8000 or an increase in the fitment factor by 3.68 times from the existing 2.57 times. However, the government is yet to look into their demand.