DA Hike Update- In March, the central government announced a 2 percent increase in dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) to 55 percent for about 1.2 crore central employees and pensioners. After this decision of the Center, many states have also started increasing the DA of their employees. This 2 percent DA increase was the lowest in the last 78 months.

But now the further decline in inflation in the first three months of this calendar year 2025 shows that central employees may see less than 2 percent or zero DA hike. And it is also possible that there may be no increase in DA. This will further disappoint crores of central government employees and pensioners who are expecting a good hike in their dearness allowance in the July-December 2025 cycle. Technically this will be the last DA revision in the 7th Pay Commission, which will complete its 10-year term on December 31 this year.

If this happens, then crores of central employees and pensioners who are expecting a good increase in dearness allowance for the period July-December 2025 will be disappointed. At present, the figures for January and February have come, after which the figure 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 there be a smaller increase in DA again in July 2025?

  1. Actually, in March, the Modi government at the center has increased dearness allowance and relief by 2 percent, after which DA has become 55 percent. However, this increase is the lowest in 78 months. Because till now DA has been increasing by 3 to 4 percent. Now the next DA will increase from July 2025, which will depend on the data from January to June 2025.
  2. The AICPI index was 143.2 in January 2025 but in February the AICPI-IW fell by 0.4 points to 142.8, although it increased by 2 points to 143.0 in March.
  3. In March 2025, CPI based retail inflation reached a 5-year low of 3.34 per cent, while it was 3.61 per cent in February. If this trend continues and AICPI points rise in the next 3 months, then 3 per cent can be expected but if the points fall, then next time we may see a DA hike of less than 2 per cent.