New Delhi (India), Feb. 5, 2023: The central government is set to increase dearness allowance (DA) for its over one crore employees and pensioners by four percentage.
The increase will now take the allowance to 42 per cent from existing 38 per cent.
The proposed hike is based on the latest Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) released by the Labour Bureau, a wing of the Labour Ministry.
Speaking on the matter, All India Railwaymen Federation General Secretary Shiva Gopal Mishra said, “The CPI-IW for December 2022 was released on January 31, 2023.” The dearness allowance hike works out to be 4.23 percent.
But the government does not factor in raising DA beyond the decimal point. Thus, DA is likely to be increased by four percentage points to 42 percent.”
The decision to raise the DA will be taken by the Union Cabinet based on a proposal formulated by the Expenditure Department of the Finance Ministry.
The DA hike will be effective January 1, 2023. The last revision in DA was done on September 28, 2022, which was effective from July 1, 2022.
The Center had increased the DA by four percentage points to 38 percent based on the percentage increase in the 12-monthly average of the All India Consumer Price Index for the period ending June 2022.
The allowance is provided to employees and pensioners to compensate them for rising prices and is revised periodically, twice a year.
