New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Thursday hiked Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) by 3% to 31% to benefit 47.14 lakh central government employees and 68.62 lakh pensioners.This was informed by Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Singh Thakur.This decision to hike the allowance will put an annual burden of Rs 9,488 crore on the exchequer.Earlier in July, the government had restored the Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) and increased the rate of allowance from 17 % to 28%.Cabinet nod for #PMGatiShakti – National Master Plan ✔️3 – tier Monitoring system; to be chaired by Cabinet Secretary✔️Empowered Group of Secretaries to be created – with Secretaries of 18 Ministries and Heads of Logistics division: Union Minister @ianuragthakur pic.twitter.com/rXpY1UBiTL— PIB India (@PIB_India) October 21, 2021 In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Union government had frozen the three additional instalments of the DA and DR, which were due from January 1, 2020, July 1, 2020, and January 1, 2021.
