7th Pay Commission: DA hike to be delayed further? – This is when central government employees can expect it?

The suspense around Dearness Allowance (DA) of the central government employees continues to build on. Amid the surge in Covid-19 cases in the country, central government employees may have to wait a little longer for the DA hike.

As per the report by Financial Express, the expected DA hike for central government employees is reported to be delayed further.

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The National Council of JCM – Staff Side has said that the Central Government may announce DA hike for its employees in June 2021. The upcoming DA hike is expected to be up to 4 percent of the basic salary of the central government employees, according to the report.

As per the reports, the delay in DA hike announcement by around one month is mainly due to the ongoing second wave of Covid-19 in the country.

The announcement regarding the hike in DA was expected by the end of April or in the first fortnight of May. But now it is likely to be declared in the month of June.

How will DA hike impact 7th CPC pay matrix?

According to the same report, the expected DA hike announcement will not have much impact on the 7th Pay Commission (7th CPC) pay matrix of central government employees.

The reason behind this is that the central government has already frozen DA and DR benefits of the employees and pensioners till June 2021.

Earlier, the government had said that the DA and DR benefits for employees and pensioners would be restored from July 2021. Therefore, even if the DA hike due since January 1 is announced now, it would be restored only from July 1.

Anurag Thakur, Minister of State in the Finance Ministry had informed the Upper House of the Parliament that as and when the decision to release the future instalment of DA would be taken, the rates of DA as effective from 01-01-2020, 01-07-2020 and 01-01-2021 would be restored prospectively and will be subsumed in the cumulative revised rates effective from 01-07-2021.