DA Hike: Good News for Lakh of Government Employees. The central government increased the dearness allowance and relief rates for central employees and pensioners by 2%, resulting in a DA increase from 53% to 55% effective from January 2025. After the center, now the state governments have also started announcing a DA hike. After Rajasthan, UP, Assam, and Odisha, the Haryana government has also increased the dearness allowance of its employees and pensioners.

Before Akshaya Tritiya, the Naib Saini government of Haryana increased the dearness allowance of its employees and pensioners by 2%, after which DA increased from 53% to 55%. The new rates will be applicable from January 2025; in such a situation, 3 months’ arrears will also be available. More than 6 lakh employees and pensioners will benefit from this. The Finance Department has also issued an order in this regard.

Arrears will also be paid

The new rates of dearness allowance will take effect from January 2025, so arrears for January, February, and March will also be available. The increased DA and DR will be paid along with the salary and pension of April 2025. The outstanding arrears of 3 months will also be paid in May. Fractions of 50 paise and above on account of dearness allowance and dearness relief may be rounded off to the next higher rupee, and fractions less than 50 paise may be ignored.

On April 1, the Bhajan Lal government increased the dearness allowance (DA) of 12.50 lakh employees and pensioners of the state by 2% to 55% under the 7th Pay Commission. This will benefit 8 lakh employees and 4.40 lakh pensioners. The increased DA will be paid in cash from the salary of April 2025, payable in May 2025. The amount for the three-month period, from January 1 to March 31, 2025, will be deposited into the GPF account of the concerned employees.

Assam: The Himanta Biswa government has increased the rate of DA/DR of employees and pensioners from 53% to 55%. This will benefit more than 738,000 state employees and pensioners. The new rates will take effect from January 2025; in this case, arrears for January, February, and March will be available. Arrears will be paid in April and May.

Uttar Pradesh: The Yogi Adityanath government has increased the Dearness Allowance (DA) of 16 lakh employees by 2%, resulting in a rise from 53% to 55%.