Centre hikes Dearness Allowance, Relief by 3 percent

The Union Cabinet on Thursday hiked Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief by 3 per cent to 31 per cent, which will benefit about 47.14 lakh Central government employees and 68.62 lakh pensioners. This was informed by Information & Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur. The Cabinet gave approval to release an additional instalment of dearness allowance (DA) to Central government employees and dearness relief (DR) to pensioners with effect from July 1, 2021, representing a 3 per cent increase over the existing 28 per cent of the basic pay/pension, to compensate for price rise, an official release said.