According to media reports, the government employees under the 7th Pay
Commission will get a hike in their dearness allowance (DA) by March 2023.
Additionally, if these reports are to be believed, the centre also plans to
increase the dearness relief (DR) for pensioners.
Generally, the DA and DR are revised twice a year in January and July. So, as
the new year is around the corner, the central government employees are
likely to get a 3 to 5 per cent hike in their DA for March 2023. The media
reports further suggest that the central government employees will also
receive the long pending 18-month DA arrears soon.
In the last DA increment in September 2022, about 48 lakh central government
employees and 68 lakh pensioners benefitted. The Centre increased DA by 4
per cent in September 2022, bringing the overall increase to 38 per cent. Prior
to this, the 7th Pay Commission had raised the 34 percent DA that central
government employees received in March 2022 by 3 per cent.
However, the decision to increase the DA will be made based on the inflation
rate and the 7th CPC's recommendations. There is a potential that the DA will be raised further if the inflation rate is high at the time.