7th Pay Commission: 3% DA Hike Announced For Govt Employees In This State; Women Get 1,500 A Month

7th Pay Commission Update: In a move that will benefit around 2.15 lakh employees and 1.90 lakh pensioners, the Himachal Pradesh government hiked the dearness allowance (DA) by 3 per cent for the state employees and pensioners. They will now receive a 34 per cent DA, against 31 per cent earlier.

The 3% DA hike will also put an additional burden of about Rs 500 crore on Himachal Pradesh’s exchequer, according to an official statement. Apart from this, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu also announced a monthly allowance of Rs 1,500 to all 9,000 women of Spiti above the age of 18 years from June 2023 in the second phase as promised in the Congress manifesto.

DA and DR are revised twice a year — January and July. Dearness allowance is given to government employees, while the dearness relief is for pensioners.

DA Hike For Central Govt Employees

According to media reports, after a 4 per cent hike in DA for central government employees recently effective January 1, the government is likely to raise the dearness allowance by another 4 per cent in July this year. The reports also said the labour ministry revised the DA calculation formula and changed the base year of dearness allowance in 2016 and released a new series of Wage Rate Index (WRI-Wage Rate Index). The ministry said the new series of WRI with base year 2016=100 replaced the old series of the base year 1963-65.

How DA is Calculated Currently?

The central government revises the DA and DR for employees based on a formula. Following is the formula:

Dearness Allowance Percentage = ((Average of All-India Consumer Price Index (Base Year 2001=100) for the past 12 months -115.76)/115.76)x100.

For Central public sector employees: Dearness Allowance Percentage = ((Average of All-India Consumer Price Index (Base Year 2001=100) for the past 3 months -126.33)/126.33)x100.

The previous revision in DA was done on September 28, 2022, which was effective from July 1, 2022. The Centre had increased DA by four percentage points to 38 per cent based on the percentage increase in the 12-month average of the All India Consumer Price Index for the period ending June 2022.

The DA is provided to employees and pensioners to compensate them for rising prices.

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