7th Pay Commission: DA hiked by 4% for central government employees

New Delhi, Sep 28: The Dearness Allowance for central government employees and pensioners has been hiked by 4 per cent under the 7th Pay Commission.

The decision was taken by the Union Cabinet and an official announcement will be made soon.

After setting up the 7th Pay Commission questions have been asked on whether the government would set up an 8th Pay Commission.

The Centre has however said that it has no plans on setting up the 8th Pay Commission for Central Government employees.

Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary told Parliament that no such proposal is under consideration with the government for constitution of the eighth Pay Commission for central government employees.

He was addressing a question on whether the government proposed to ensure a timely constitution of an Eighth Pay Commission for the Central Government employees so that it could be implemented on January 1 2026.

"In order to compensate central government employees for the erosion in the real value of their salaries on account of inflation, the dearness allowances (DA) are paid to them and the rate of DA is revised periodically every six months on the basis of the rate of inflation as per All India Consumer Price lndex for Industrial Workers released by Labour Bureau under the Ministry of Labour & Employment," the minister said in a written reply.

As inflation rates rise the employees are eagerly waiting for a hike in their Dearness Allowance.

The DA is calculated on the basis of retail inflation which has been over 7 per cent for quite some time now.

In July 2021 the Centre had revised the DA from 17 to 28 per cent based on the recommendations made by the 7th Pay Commission. The government had in October 2021 against hiked the DA by 3 per cent.

In January 2022 the Centre decided to increase the DA by another 3 per cent as a result of which the government employees get a DA of 34 per cent. Over 50 lakh government employees and 65 lakh pensioners are beneficiaries of the DA.

The Centre forms a pay commission to revise the salary structure of the government employees after every 10 years. The 7th Pay Commission was formed on February 28 2014.