Centre hikes dearness allowance to 5% for 1.1 crore employees, pensioners

New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday increased dearness allowance and dearness relief by 1 per cent to 5 percent, benefiting 50 lakh employees and 61 lakh pensioners. [caption id=“attachment_4036439” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] This decision was taken at the Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here. “Release of additional installment of DA is an increase of 1 percent over the existing rate of 4 percent of the basic pay/pension, to compensate for price rise,” according to an official statement. The new rate will be applicable from 1 July. The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both DA and DR would be Rs 3,068.26 crore per annum and Rs 2,045.50 crore in the financial year 2017-18 (for a period of 8 months from July 2017 to February 2018). This move will benefit about 49.26 lakh central government employees and 61.17 lakh pensioners, it said.