The 7th Central Pay Commission’s announcement of hike in dearness allowance (DA) may get further delayed to the month of June 2021. The Standing Committee of National Council of JCM stated that the hike could be equivalent to almost four per cent of the basic salary of the Central government employees.
The second wave of the pandemic has disturbed the working of the Government, and its various departments. Therefore, the DA hike announcement, which should have happened last month, in April, will now be delayed till June. This will further delay the implementation till July.
However, it has been clarified that this delay will not affect the 7th Pay Commission pay matrix as the Government had already put a freeze on the DA and DR benefits of the government employees and pensioners till June 2021. In March 2021, the Ministry of Finance had announced in the Parliament that the long overdue hike would be implemented from July 1, 2021.
As per the DA hike calculation, average inflation for July to December 2020 is about 3.5 per cent, which means the DA hike of an employee should be at least four per cent of the basic pay.
Mishra further stated that JCM has recommended the center pay the DA in parts if it is unable to pay the three installments to about 52 lakhs beneficiaries.
