7th pay commission: DA arrears in limbo as talks get delayed

Central government employees will have to wait for a little longer for Dearness Allowance (DA) arrears payment as talks between the National Council of JCM-a central government servants' representative body and officials from the Ministry of Finance and Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) have been delayed.

The meeting is likely to take place in the second or third week of June since talks over payment of three installments of DA arrears-January 1, 2020, July 1, 2020, and January 1, 2021, could not take place in May due to surge in COVID-19 cases in Delhi and the subsequent lockdown.

In case DA is approved, central government employees may get a 4 per cent hike, taking their DA from 17 per cent to 21 per cent. This will lead to a significant raise in the salaries of employees and DR for pensioners is also likely to see a boost.

The Centre had suspended disbursement of DA at increased rates along with DR for pensioners due to the coronavirus pandemic. Suspending DA hikes from January 1, 2020-January 1, 2021 helped the government save Rs 37,530.08 crore, Union Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. Using this amount, the government bolstered the resources needed to manage the economic impact of coronavirus and subsequent restrictions through various stimulus measures.

Edited by Mehak Agarwal

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