7th Pay Commission: Request by pensioners to release 3 instalments of DR rejected

New Delhi, Apr 15: The Centre has turned down a request from pensioners to release three instalments of Dearness Relief (DR) that was held back during the peak days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The total amount of DR and Dearness Allowance (DA) held back was approximately Rs 34,000 crore, a report in the Hindustan Times said. The report said that at the end of the 32nd meeting of the standing committee of voluntary agencies for review and rationalisation of pension rules, a representative of the Department of Expenditure (DoE) said that the amount of Das and DRs that had been frozen will not be restored.

In March, the government increased the Dearness Allowance for Central Government employees under the 7th Pay Commission by 3 per cent. The decision was taken today by the Union Cabinet and will come into effect starting January 1 2022.

It may be recalled that the decision was halted for over a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In July last year the Centre hiked the DA and Dearness Relief for CG employees to 28 per cent from 17 per cent.

It was again increased October 2021 when there was a hike of 3 per cent. With the last hike the DA for the CG employees rose to 31 per cent which was effective from July 2021.