New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday increased the dearness allowance and dearness relief by 4 percentage points to 46 per cent to benefit 48.67 lakh central government employees and 67.95 lakh pensioners.
Briefing reporters about the decisions of the union cabinet, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said the decision will be implemented from July 1 this year. This increase is in accordance with the accepted formula, based on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission.
"Dearness Allowance for Central government employees and Dearness Relief for pensioners has been increased by 4 per cent. The DA hike will be implemented from 1, July 2023," he said. The decision will benefit 48.67 lakh Central Government Employees and 67.95 lakh pensioners. The minister said the decision has come in the festival season and will benefit both the central government employees and pensioners.
DA and DR are given twice a year to compensate employees and pensioners, respectively, for price rise. The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both DA and DR would be Rs 12,857 crore per annum. In March this year and September last year also, the increase in DA and DR was 4 percentage points.
The DA and DR hikes are applicable from January 1 and July 1. Thakur also informed that railway employees will receive a bonus equivalent to their 78 days' salaries, benefiting more than 11.07 lakh non-gazetted staff of the national transporter. The decision will benefit track maintainers, loco pilots, train managers (guards), station masters, supervisors, technicians, technician helpers, pointsmen, ministerial staff and other Group 'C' staff, excluding the RPF and RPSF personnel.
The payment of the Productivity Linked Bonus (PLB) to the railway staff is expected to cost the exchequer Rs 1,968.87 crore, Thakur said. "In recognition of an excellent performance by the railway staff, the Union government has approved the payment of a PLB of Rs 1,968.87 crore to 11,07,346 railway employees.
"The performance of the railways in the year 2022-2023 was very good. The railways loaded a record cargo of 1,509 million tonnes and carried nearly 6.5 billion (650 crore) passengers," an official statement said.
