7th Pay Commission: Expect good news on DA, DR, TA soon

New Delhi, Jan 28: The government is likely to take a decision soon with regard to the 7th Pay Commission and is likely to hike the DA and DR soon.

The first would be a 4 per cent hike in Dearness Allowance (DA), expected this month itself and the second would be the Dearness Relief (DR), which was approved by the Union Cabinet with effect from January 1 2020. The government is working on the same and is expected to make an announcement soon.

The increase of the DA by 4 per cent would mean Central Government employees will get more salary.

This would mean that the DA would be hiked from 17 to 21 per cent. While reports say that the hike in DA would come into effect this month, the government is yet to announce the date officially.

The finance ministry had announced that there will be an increase of 4 per cent over the existing rate of 17 per cent of the Basic Pay/Pension to compensate the employees for the rise in price.

This would cost the Centre's exchequer Rs 12,150 crore per year for the DA. In the case of the DR, the exchequer would be burdened by Rs 14,595 crore in FY 2020-21 for the period between January 2020 and February 2021.

This would benefit around 48.34 lakh CG employees and 65.26 lakh pensioners.

In another development relating to the 7th Pay Commission, the government decided to extend the Disability Compensation for all serving employees.

This decision would go a long way and especially provide relief for those in the central armed police force (CAPF), personnel of the BSF, CISF, BSF etc.

In another major relief to the Central Government employees, the Modi government has decided to give one time reimbursement under the 7th Pay Commission linked LTC allowance.

This is to make for the heavy cancellation charges for air/train tickets meant for their Leave Travel Concession due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

"During the months of March - May, 2020, a Nation-wide Lockdown was implemented across the country in view of the prevailing Covid-19 epidemic. During this period, all domestic flights within India were cancelled but certain airlines have charged the cancellation charges against the pre-booked air tickets. In such a situation, many Government employees who had booked LTC tickets in advance for that period are facing financial difficulties in view of the high cancellation amount charged by the airlines. In this regard, requests are being received in this Department for grant of one-time relaxation for reimbursement of the cancellation charges.," the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said an Office Memorandum.

It has been observed that many airlines have not refunded the ticket amount for the air tickets booked in advance for the LTC journey scheduled during the lockdown period. This is causing hardship to the Government employees as the LTC advance along with the penal interest is required to be returned if the journey is not undertaken.