Govt increase 8% DA for central govt employees

The Union Cabinet has approved a eight per cent hike in dearness allowance (DA) for central government employees with effect from January 1. About 50 lakh central government employees would get 8 percentage points increase in their dearness allowance (DA), as a proposal in this regard has been cleared by the Cabinet on Friday. Pensioners will get the dearness relief too, highly placed sources said. The DA would be revised from 27 per cent to 35 per cent of basic salaries, giving some respite from high inflation. The increase would be given with retrospective effect from January this year. The DA revision is based on the consumer price index (CPI) for industrial workers, which has been showing a steep increase along with other indices of the price rise. The CPI for industrial workers increased to 16.2 per cent in January from 10.4 per cent a year ago.