DA Update: There is a big update for govt employees. The central government increased the dearness allowance of central employees by 2%, after which the DA has increased from 53% to 55% from January 2025. After the Center, now the process of increasing DA has started by the state governments. Recently, the Bhajanlal government of Rajasthan, the Yogi Adityanath government of UP and the Himanta Biswa Sarma government of Assam have also increased the DA of their employees.

There is a possibility that the governments of Haryana and Gujarat may also announce DA hike soon before Akshaya Tritiya. Currently, the employees and pensioners of both the states are getting the benefit of dearness allowance and dearness relief at the rate of 53 percent.

DA will increase by 2%

There is a possibility that before Akshaya Tritiya, the Naib Saini government of Haryana can increase the dearness allowance of its employees and pensioners by 2%, after which DA will increase from 53% to 55%. The new rates will be applicable from January 2025, in such a situation, the arrears of January, February and March will also be available. More than 3 lakh employees and pensioners will benefit from this.

Apart from this, the Bhupendra Patel government of Gujarat can also increase the dearness allowance of its employees and pensioners by 2%. The new rates will be applicable from January 2025, which will also provide 3 months’ arrears. This will benefit about 9 lakh workers, including all state government and panchayat employees coming under the Seventh Pay Commission, teaching and non-teaching staff in secondary and higher secondary schools and employees of aided non-government schools.

DA Calculation

The increase in DA and DR is calculated based on the percentage increase in the 12-month average of the All India Consumer Price Index (CPI-IW) for industrial workers. The government usually revises these allowances on January 1 and July 1 every year.

DA for central government employees is calculated like this- DA% = [(Average of AICPI (Base Year 2001 = 100) for last 12 months – 115.76)/115.76] x 100

DA for public sector employees is calculated like this- DA% = [(Average of AICPI (Base Year 2001 = 100) for last 3 months – 126.33)/126.33] x 100