Assam Cabinet approves increase in DA, DR to 28% from 17%

August 11: After the Union Cabinet on 14 July approved increase in the Dearness Allowance (DA) to Central government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners to 28 per cent, with effect from July 1 this year, Assam government also enhanced the DA & DR of its employees and pensioners respectively. This represents a hike of 11 percent over the existing rate of 17 percent of the basic pay or pension. In April last year, the finance ministry had put on hold an increment in DA due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Informing this on his Facebook Page on 11 August, Cabinet Minister, Pijush Hazarika wrote, “Today’s cabinet have decided to increase DA & DR of state govt employees and pensioners from 17 percent to 28 percent. This means, there will be an increase of 11 percent. This decision will be implemented from 1 July of the current year.”

As per sources, it was informed that the current enhanced rate of 28 percent DA/DR shall be paid along with monthly pay/pension from the month of August 2021. The arrear DA/DR with effect from 01/07/2021 shall be paid in a single installment through bank accounts of the employees/ pensioners.

Dearness allowance is paid by the government to its employees to compensate for the increase in the cost of living due to inflation. It is revised twice a year, on January 1 and July 1. Dearness relief is the same as allowance and is given to government pensioners.