7th Pay Commission: Amid the rising Covid-19 cases in the country, central government employees may have to wait a little longer for the DA hike. A report by Financial Express stated that the expected DA hike for central government employees is said to be delayed further.
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.
Earlier, Minister of State (MoS) for Finance, Anurag Singh Thakur had said that the three installments of dearness allowance will start to be paid from July 1, 2021.
In a written reply in the Upper House of Parliament regarding the payment of DA, Anurag Thakur stated the three pending DA installments of the Central Government servants will be ‘subsumed’ and the revised DA rates will become effective from 1st July 2021.
So far, there has been no update on three pending DA installments from January 1, 2020, July 1, 2020, and January 1, 2021.
As per several reports, the delay in DA hike announcement is mainly due to the ongoing second wave of Covid-19 in the country, which continues to wreak havoc. The announcement 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.
Will DA hike impact 7th Pay Commission?
The expected DA hike announcement won’t have much impact on the 7th Pay Commission (7th CPC) pay matrix of Central Government Employees, as per the FE report. The reason behind this is that the central government has already frozen DA and DR benefits of the employees and pensioners till June 2021.
Central employees and pensioners are currently getting a 17% dearness allowance.