7th Pay Commission Central Government Employees DA: Important confirmation from Finance Ministry

The Ministry of Finance has cleared the air surrounding the Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR). The Finance Ministry has said that no order relating to the payment of increments in dearness allowance for central government employees and dearness relief for pensioners has been issued.

In a tweet, the Ministry had said a document is doing the rounds on social media claiming resumption of DA to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief to Central Government pensioners from July 2021, PTI reported. The tweet came on June 26. 

"This OM (Office memorandum) is #Fake. No such OM has been issued by GOI," it tweeted.

SEE TWEET HERE

A document is doing rounds on social media claiming resumption of DA to Central Government employees & Dearness Relief to Central Government pensioners from July 2021.
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— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) June 26, 2021

In April last year, the finance ministry had put on hold increment in dearness allowance (DA) for 50 lakh central government employees and 61 lakh pensioners till June 30, 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, PTI said in its report.

“In view of the crisis arising out of COVID-19, it has been decided that additional instalment of dearness allowance payable to central government employees and dearness relief (DR) to central government pensioners due from January 1, 2020, shall not be paid," the Department of Expenditure had said, PTI reported.  

The additional instalment of DA and DR due from July 1, 2020, and January 1, 2021, shall also not be paid, the Department of Expenditure had said, the PTI report further said.  

However, DA and DR at current rates will continue to be paid, the department had said, PTI reported.

Dearness allowance or DA is paid by the government to public sector employees while DR is paid to government pensioners as the cost-of-living allowance to support them from rising prices. DA is calculated according to the employees' basic salary based on the respective pay scale and added along with other components as take-home amount.