After the Central government increased the dearness allowance (DA) of its employees, the Uttar Pradesh government has also announced an increase in DA by three per cent, taking it up to 31 per cent from the earlier 28 per cent. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath made an announcement to this effect on Twitter.
The DA hike will be made effective from July 21, 2021 and the arrears will deposited to the employee provident fund account. As per the media reports, every year, the DA is revised twice and this is the second time in 2021 that the UP government has increased the DA for all employees.
In April 2020, the Government withheld the DA hike citing funds needed to tackle the situation of COVID-19 in India. Till then, the DA rate was at 17 per cent. In July 2021, the DA was revised to 28 per cent for all UP government employees.
The decision to increase the DA will impact almost 16 lakh employees in the UP government and close to 12 lakh pensioners.
As per media news, some amount of increased DA will be credited to the NPS account of those part of the National Pension Scheme (NPS). Those who have retired before the decision was announced will receive their share of DA in cash.
This hike comes close on the heels of the Bihar government increasing the DA by 11 per cent. Earlier, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh also announced a hike in DA for its employees.
The move will cost the state exchequer Rs 6,500 crore extra.
