No plans to merge Dearness Allowance with Basic Pay for Central Government Employees: Finance Ministry

The Finance Ministry is not planning to merge the 50% dearness allowance (DA)/dearness relief (DR) of central government employees/pensioners with basic pay/pension as an interim relief before the preparation of the 8th Central Pay Commission (CPC) report.

The minister was replying to a question raised by Rajya Sabha member Javed Ali Khan.

Khan had asked, "whether Government proposes to merge 50 per cent DA/DR with basic pay/pension of Central government employees/pensions as interim relief before report of 8th Central pay Commission is prepared and adopted in view of unprecedented inflation during the last 32 years..."

The government is yet to formally set up the 8th commission. It is expected to be done by next month (April 2025).

"The basic rate of DA/DR is revised periodically every six months on the basis of All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (AICPI-IW) released by Labour Bureau under Ministry of Labour and Employments. Since the implementation of the recommendations of the Seventh Central Pay Commission from 01.01.2016, 15 installments of DA/DR have been granted to Central Government employees/pensioners so far," Chaudhary said.