New Delhi, Oct 26 (PTI) In what could bring cheers to 50 lakh central
employees and 58 lakh pensioners ahead of Diwali, the Centre is all set
to announce 2 per cent dearness allowance to be effective from July 1,
2016.
"The proposal to provide 2 per cent dearness allowance and dearness
relief to central government employees and pensioners respectively, is
listed on agenda of the Union Cabinet meeting scheduled for tomorrow," a source said.
Dearness allowance and dearness relief is provided to employees and
pensioners to neutralise the impact of price rise on their earnings.
Earlier this year the government hiked Dearness Allowance by 6 per cent
to 125 per cent of the basic pay. The DA was later merged into the basic
pay following implementation of 7th Pay Commission award.
The central government employee unions want that the DA should be
increased by 3 per cent and not 2 per cent which is being considered by
the centre.
President of Confederation of Central Government Employees K K N Kutty
told PTI: "The 12-month average of Consumer Price Index for Industrial
Workers from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016, works out to be 2.92 per
cent. Therefore the unions had pressed for 3 per cent DA. We are not
satisfied with this."
As per the agreed formula, government increases DA on the basis of
12-month average of the retail inflation and does not consider the price
rise rate beyond decimal point for deciding the rate of dearness
allowance.
