No 7th Pay Commission news for central government employees, but this state hikes DA for staff

Even as 7th Pay Commission salary hike for central government employees is pending for long as the Centre sits on the issue, the state governments are stealing the march as they are issuing orders that are boosting the interests of their staff members. The latest state to make a major move is the Odisha government, which on Tuesday, announced a hike in dearness allowance (DA). The good news for state government employees is that dearness allowance has been increased by 2 per cent. Recently, some states have even increased the retirement age of their staff to ensure they get full benefits.

The best part is that the Odisha dearness allowance hike will be implemented with retrospective effect from January 1, 2018. This was revealed in a statement from the Chief Minister`s Office (CMO). Notably, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had approved a proposal to implement the DA hike. For Odisha government employees, this latest hike in dearness allowance by two per cent takes the total increase to seven per cent now. Not just government servants, the state government also applies to pensioners whose Dearness Relief (TI) too has been raised in similar manner. The pensioners drawing a pension at the pre-revised rate will get a hiked TI of two per cent. As far as the pensioners drawing pension not at a pre-revised rate are concerned, then they will get an additional TI of three per cent, the statement added.

Even as the Odisha government employees enjoy the moment, their colleagues at the Centre would be wondering when exactly FM Arun Jaitley will take up their 7th Pay Commission case, which has been pending for long. They are demanding a fitment factor hike of 3.68 times, but the government has said on record that no such proposal on these lines is lying with it. However, whether this is the final decision or not is as yet clear. What is giving great hope is that the general elections are fast approaching and they may well carry some great news for staff.  

Notably, today, RBI data revealed that the hike in HRA under the 7th Pay Commission has caused housing inflation to spike and this has affected headline inflation too. It should be remembered that the reason why government employees want a higher pay hike is that price rise is eating into their income in a major way.