2% Dearness Allowance Hike Likely For Central Government Employees From January 1

2% Dearness Allowance Hike Likely For Central Government Employees From January 1
The Centre is likely to announce a hike of 2-4 per cent in dearness allowance for its about 50 lakh employees and 58 lakh pensioners later this month.

New Delhi: The Centre is likely to announce a hike of 2-4 per cent in dearness allowance for its about 50 lakh employees and 58 lakh pensioners later this month.

Dearness allowance and dearness relief are provided to employees and pensioners to neutralise the impact of inflation on their earnings. The labour unions, however, are not happy with the proposed hike saying it would not be able to offset the real impact of price rise.

"The dearness allowance as per the agreed formula by the Centre works out to be 2 per cent which would be effected from January 1, 2017," Confederation of Central Government Employees President K K N Kutty told PTI.

However, Kutty expressed dissatisfaction over such a "meagre" hike saying that the consumer price index for industrial workers (CPI-IW) which is an agreed benchmark for increasing dearness allowance is far from reality.
He said that there is difference between the quantum of price rise of commodities ascertained by the Labour Bureau and the Ministry of Agriculture.

CPI-IW is an imaginary number due to poor quality of data collection by Labour Bureau and it is far from reality, he claimed.

The average CPI-IW to be taken into account for raising DA is 4.95 per cent from January 1 to December 31, 2017. Since the government has already hiked the dearness allowance by 2 per cent in October last year from July 1, 2016, it will now raise it further by 2 per cent.

As per an agreed upon formula, the Centre hikes the allowance taking 12-month average of retail inflation. The government does not consider the price rise rate beyond a decimal point for deciding the rate of the dearness allowance.

Therefore, despite the fact that the hike works out to be 2.95 per cent, the government will ignore the rate of price rise beyond decimal point and increase the DA by 2 per cent.

The dearness allowance is paid as proportion of the basic pay of the central government employees.
Kutty said that the federation in the next meeting of the national council would make a case for considering the fractions while fixing DA.

The national council is an apex forum functioning under the Department of Personnel and Training where unionists and senior official discuss issues concerning central employees.

Earlier last year, the government hiked DA by 6 per cent to 125 per cent of basic pay. The DA was later merged into the basic pay following the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission award.

At present the Central government employees and pensioners are entitled to 2 per cent dearness allowance, which was effected from July 1, 2016.

Railway Unions demand 3% DA hike

Railway Unions demand 3% DA hike

New Delhi: Expressing “dissatisfaction” over over the announcement of 2 per cent increase in dearness allowance by the government, railway unions have demanded it be raised to 3 per cent.

We have expressed dissatisfaction over the announcement of a meagre 2 per cent rise in DA by the Central government from July 1, 2016, National Federation of Indian Railwaymen M Raghavaiah said.

Ahead of Diwali, the Centre has announced 2 per cent dearness allowance for Central government employees effective from July.

“Central government employees and pensioners have been waiting eagerly for the announcement of DA since September 2016. But we are disappointed that the government has announced only 2 per cent whereas the 12-month average of Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers from 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016, works out to be 2.92 per cent,” Raghavaiah said and added “The Government ought to have been considerate in announcing this half-yearly hike in DA and rounded off to 3 per cent.”

All India Railwaymen Federation General Secretary S Gopal Mishra said 2 per cent DA is not satisfactory and it should be raised to 3 per cent.

PTI

Dearness allowance likley to be hiked by 10% on Friday in Cabinet Meeting

Dearness allowance likley to be hiked by 10% on Friday: Zee News

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet is likely to approve hiking dearness allowance to 100 percent from existing 90 percent benefiting 50 lakh employees and 30 lakh pensioners in it meeting scheduled on Friday.

"The Union Cabinet will take a proposal to hike Dearness allowance for its employees and dearness relief for its pensioners to 100 percent this Friday as per agenda listed for the meeting," a source said.

This increase in the dearness allowance by the UPA-2 government comes ahead of the imposition of the model code of conduct by the Election Commission.

The model code of conduct is likely to come into force with the announcement of the schedule for the forthcoming general elections in a week or so.

Also it would be the second double digit DA hike in a row. The government had announced a hike of 10 percent to 90 percent in September last year, effective from July 1, 2013.

The hike in DA would be effective from the January 1 this year.

As per practice, the government uses Consumer Price Index- Industrial Workers data of the past 12 months to arrive at a quantum for the purpose of any DA hike. Thus, the retail inflation for industrial workers between January 1 to December 31, 2013 would be used to take a final call on the matter.

According to the provisional data released by government on January 31, the retail inflation for factory workers for the month of December stood at 9.13 percent. The revised retail inflation data for January would be released on February 28.

An official said that the preliminary assessment suggests that DA hike will not be less than 10 percent and would be effective from January 1 this year.

Source: http://zeenews.india.com
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