The Central government recently hiked the Dearness Allowance (DA) by 4 percent for employees after which several state governments including Assam, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka, and Rajasthan also increased the DA of their state employees under the recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission.
Now that the festival of Diwali is soon to be over, the Central government employees are waiting for the next hike in DA. It is important to note that the DA is hiked for government employees twice a year – January and July. However, in the year 2022, the Centre announced the first DA hike in March and the second one in September.
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If this trend continues then the government employees could next receive a hike in DA in March 2023 where it is expected that the Centre would increase the DA by 3 to 5 percent.
For the unversed, the Central government, in March, increased the DA from 31 percent to 34 percent which benefitted over 47.68 lakh government employees and 68.62 lakh, pensioners.
The next phase of DA was later announced in September 2022, 6 months after the first DA hike.
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The last time Centre hiked Dearness Relief and Dearness Allowance, took it from 34 percent to 38 percent, was March 30, 2022, and the second DA hike was announced on September 28, 2022.
Going by this year’s trend, the next DA hike is expected in March 2023, about six months from now. Taking into consideration rising inflation and the rise in prices of essential commodities, the Centre is likely to hike DA by 3 to 5 percent.
