8th Pay Commission immediate relief: Will DA merge with Basic Pay? Finance Ministry to respond

8th Pay Commission latest news: On December 1, 2025, the Ministry of Finance will reply to a query in the Lok Sabha on whether there is a plan to merge dearness allowance (DA)/dearness relief (DR) with basic pay/basic pension as a measure to provide immediate relief to employees and pensioners.

The query has been submitted by Lok Sabha member Anand Bhadauria.

According to the list of upcoming questions posted on the Lok Sabha website, Mr Bhadauria has asked the Finance Ministry to respond to the following queries:

(a) whether the Government has issued notification for constitution of 8th Central Pay Commission recently;

(b) if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether the Government proposes to merge the existing DA/DR with basic pay as an immediate relief measure for Central Government employees/pensioners who are facing unprecedented inflation during the last 30 years since DA/DR given to these employees is not in consonance will the real time retail inflation;

(d) if so, the details thereof; and

(e) if not, the reasons therefor

The answers to the above questions are expected during the Winter Session of the Parliament from December 1 to December 19, 2025.

Meanwhile, the Government has already notified the Terms of Reference and its resolution for the constitution of the 8th Central Pay Commission.

Will the DA be merged with Basic?

The existing DA/DR is generally merged with basic pay/pension by a central pay commission. It happened in the 7th Pay Commission as well. Therefore, the 8th CPC is also expected to follow this convention and calculate revised salaries/pensions after merging the existing DA with basic pay.

"The merger of basic pay with DA would need to be effected in the sense that this merger is inevitably carried out when Pay Commissions submit their recommendations," the 7th CPC had noted.

Dearness allowance helps protect the real pay in the government. DA is the percentage of pay by which the CPI (IW) increases over a fixed base value.