Increase / decrease in DA / DR for Central Government employees

7th CPC Expected DA/DR from January, 2020

If it's a fact that Central Govt has a Daily Allowance (DA) and a Dearness Relief (DR). Employees and pensioners are due as from 4 January 2020

Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Expenditure

Rajya Sabha

Unstarred Question No. 1336

To be answered on
Tuesday, 3 March, 2020
Falguna 13, 1941(Saka)

Increase / decrease in DA / DR

1336: Shri Majeed Memon
Will the Minister of Finance be pleased to state:

(a) Whether it is a fact that Daily Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) for Central Govt. employees and pensioners have become due with effect from 4th January, 2020.
(b) If so, the details thereof
(c) Whether DA/DR is based on rise in inflation and increase in prices of essential commodities; and
(d) If so, whether the increase in DA allowance is in line with increase in price of essential items and if not, the reason therefore?

Also check: 4% DA hike to Central Government employees is confirmed as from 1 January 2020

Answer

Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance :
(Shri Anurag Thakur)

(a) & (b): Yes Sir. Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief are granted to serving employees and pensioners of the Central Government respectively each year with effect from 1st January and 1st July and normally paid in the month of March and September respectively.

(c) & (d): Yes Sir. The level of inflation for the purpose of DA/DR to Central Government employees/pensioners is calculated on the basis of All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers which is issued by Labour Bureau, Shimla

What are the 7th CPC’s Recommendations Regarding Dearness Allowance? 7th CPC DA Calculation

What are the 7th CPC’s Recommendations Regarding Dearness Allowance? 7th CPC DA Calculation

Dearness Allowance is one of the important issues that the Pay Commission deals with.

The calculation method that was recommended by the 6th Pay Commission was radically different from the ones suggested by all the previous Pay Commissions.

Dearness Allowance, which was increasing by 1 or 2% until the 5th Pay Commission suddenly shot up to double-digit numbers. Until the 5th CPC, the All India Consumer Price Index Number for Industrial Workers 1982 = 100 was used for calculating dearness allowance. From the 6th Pay Commission onwards, CPI (IW) 2001 = 100 was used for calculating the DA.

There was another crucial change that the 6th CPC made. it recommended that the Reference Base Index be changed from 306.33. As a result, 115.76 became the new Reference Base Index from 01.01.2006 onwards.

The report says…

The Commission assuming that the rate of Dearness Allowance would be 125 percent at the time of implementation of the new pay.

The Dearness Allowance (DA) is paid to Central Government employees to adjust the cost of living and to protect their Basic Pay from erosion in the real value on account of inflation. Presently, DA is based on the All India Consumer Price Index (Industrial Workers).

The JCM-Staff Side has suggested that the existing formula for the calculation of DA may continue.


Analysis and Recommendations

The VI CPC had recommended that the National Statistical Commission may be asked to explore the possibility of a specific survey covering government employees exclusively, so as to construct a consumption basked representative of government employees and formulate a separate index. This has, however, not been done.

Keeping in mind that the present formulation of DA has worked well over the years, and there are no demands for its alteration, the Commission recommends continuance of the existing formula and methodology for calculating the Dearness Allowance.

The prices of all items have been sourced from Labor Bureau, Shimla. These prices are used in the calculation of the CPI (IW) and subsequently the calculation of Dearness Allowance. In the current exercise the prices of all items are for the period July 2014-June 2015 and have been used in the calculation of DA at 119 percent operative from 01.07.2015.

7th Pay Commission DA Calculation – Jan 2016 AICPIN starts with new episode of ‘Expected DA July 2016’

7th Pay Commission DA Calculation – Jan 2016 AICPIN starts with new episode of ‘Expected DA July 2016’

“The first AICPIN points of 2016 will be released tomorrow”

The Dearness Allowance given to Central Government employees and Pensioners will henceforth be calculated on the basis of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations from 1.1.2016.(Expects its recommendations to be implemented by the Government)

The first All India Consumer Price Index – CPI (IW) Base Year 2001=100, used for calculating the Dearness Allowance will be announced tomorrow by the Central Government.

The current DA, according to the 6th Pay Commission, began at zero on 01.01.2006, and ended at 125%. It will restart again at zero from 01.01.2016 onwards.

There is no Dearness Allowance for the six months from January to June 2016. 

From July 2016 onwards, the new and first Dearness Allowance will be announced based on the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission. In other words, the Dearness Allowance for the six months between July and December 2016 will be based on the fluctuations in the prices of essential commodities, called the AICPIN points, between January and June 2016.

The 7th Pay Commission has not prescribed any dramatic changes in the method of calculation of the Dearness Allowance. Instead, the previous method is all set to continue.

But, final announcements will be made in this regard only after the Central Government makes its decisions clear.

6TH CPC DA TABLE