DA Hike: The central government has increased the Dearness Allowance (DA) of central employees and Dearness Relief (DR) of pensioners by 2% from January 2025, which has now increased the DA to 55%. After this decision of the Center, many states have also started increasing the DA of their employees.

The central government had announced a 2 percent increase in Dearness Allowance (DA) Dearness Relief (DR) for central employees and pensioners March 2025. The Dearness Allowance of about 1.2 crore central employees and pensioners increased to 55 percent. This 2 percent increase in DA was the lowest in the last 78 months. But now, after the decline in inflation in the first three months of the calendar year 2025, it is estimated that there may be less than 2 percent increase in DA for central employees. And it is possible that there may be no increase in DA.

If this happens, then crores of central government employees and pensioners who are expecting a good increase in their dearness allowance for the period July-December 2025 will be disappointed. Currently, the marks of January and February have come, after which the score has reached 143.0, however, the figures for March, April, May and June are yet to come, after which it will be decided how much DA will increase from July 2025.

Will the DA increase be less than 3% again in July 2025?

1. Actually, in March, the Modi government at the center has increased dearness allowance and relief by 2%, after which DA has become 55%, although this increase is the lowest in 78 months, because till now DA has been increasing by 3 to 4%. Now the next DA will increase from July 2025 which will depend on the data from January to June 2025.

2. In January 2025, the AICPI INDEX was 143.2 but in February the AICPI-IW fell by 0.4 points to 142.8, however, in March it rose by 2 points to reach 143.0.

3. CPI based retail inflation rate reached a 5-year low of 3.34% in March 2025, while it was 3.61% in February. If this trend continues and if the AICPI points rise in the next 3 months, then 3% can be expected but if the points fall, then next time we may see a DA increase of less than 2%.