This will benefit about 48.41 lakh Central-Government employees and 61.17 lakh pensioners.
The Union Cabinet has approved the release of an additional instalment of dearness allowance (DA) to Central Government employees and dearness relief (DR) to pensioners with effect from January 1, 2018.
This will mean an increase of two per cent in DA over the existing rate of five per cent of the basic pay/pension, to compensate for price rise.
This will benefit about 48.41 lakh Central-Government employees and 61.17 lakh pensioners.
The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both DA and DR would be Rs 6077.72 crore per annum and Rs 7090.68 crore in the financial year 2018–19 (for a period of 14 months from January, 2018 to February, 2019).
This increase is in accordance with the accepted formula, which is based on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission.