In October 2021, the Narendra Modi government approved a 3 per cent hike in Dearness Allowance (DA) for Central Government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) for pensioners, taking the DA rate to 31 per cent.
However, the employees are yet to get the DA arrears which has been put on hold for 18 months. Therefore, the question remains when will the arrears reach the government employees' bank accounts?
If media reports are to be believed, the Centre is seriously considering the same and the arrear amount will be disbursed soon. It is also believed that the Union Cabinet may take up the matter for discussion in its next meeting.
Besides, the National Council of JCM’s, Shiv Gopal Mishra, reportedly had a meeting with the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) and the Finance Minister regarding the arrears of the employees.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Cabinet Council had made a proposal for a one-time settlement amount towards the DA arrears. So, how much will be the arrears amount?
According to a report in Zee News Hindi, Shiv Gopal Mishra has said that the DA arrear amount of the employees in Level-1 range between Rs 11,880 and Rs 37,554 while for those in Level-13 or Level-14, the arrear amount would range from Rs 1,44,200 to 2,18,200.
The Centre had frozen DA to 48 lakh Central government employees and about 60 lakh pensioners-- for the period January to June 2020, July to December 2020 and January to June 2021-- following the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic.