Centre Announces 3 Percent Hike in Dearness Allowance for Central Govt Employees

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) also approved PM GatiShakti National Master Plan.

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The Union Cabinet on Thursday, 21 October, approved a three percent hike in the dearness allowance (DA) for central government employees, increasing it from 28 percent to 31 percent, with effect from 1 July 2021.

The Centre has also decided to raise the dearness relief (DR) for pensioners by three percent.

The hike announcement will benefit around 47.14 lakh central government employees and 68.62 lakh pensioners respectively.

On account of both DA and DR, impact on the exchequer would be around Rs 9,488.70 crore per annum, NDTV reported.

DA is paid to the central government's employees to compensate for the increase in the cost of living due to inflation. It is revised twice a year, on 1 January and 1 July.

Meanwhile, DR is the same as DA, but is given to central government pensioners.

On 14 July this year, the Centre had hiked the allowance from 17 to 28 percent, in effect from 1 July.

The government had earlier frozen installments of DA and DR for 1 January 2020, 1 July 2020 and 1 January 2021.

GatiShakti National Master Plan Approved

Union Minister Anurag Thakur also announced, "The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved PM GatiShakti National Master Plan including institutional framework for rolling out, implementation, monitoring and support mechanism for providing multi-modal connectivity", ANI reported.

Thakur added, "the PM GatiShakti NMP will be monitored in a three-tier system. "Implementation framework includes an Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS) headed by Cabinet Secretary".

(With inputs from NDTV)