The govt said it will not pay the hike in dearness allowance to staff and pensioners that was due from January 1, 2020. until July 2021.
New Delhi: On Thursday, the Union govt halted the outlay of increased dearness allowance (DA) to its staff and pensioners published last month and decided to stop the next two hikes as well because of the pressure on its finances due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief, a component of salary and pension of government employees, are meant to balance the rising living costs due to inflation.
As a result of the freeze, the govt will not pay the hike in dearness allowance that was due from January 1, 2020, and the rates will remain the same till July 2021, a notification issued by the government said. The government also said no arrears for the period from January 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021, will be paid.
The decision will impact about 49.26 lakh union government employees and 61.17 lakh pensioners.
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On Wednesday, the decision was made at a meeting of the union cabinet. The union cabinet had authorised an increment of 4 per cent to DA in March with effect from January 2020 for a total of 21%.
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