New Delhi, Sep 24 (IANS) To compensate its employees and pensioners for general price rise, the central government Monday decided to hike their dearness allowance (DA) by seven percent points, sources said. At present the dearness allowance is 65 percent of the basic pay.
The additional DA and dearness relief will be paid from July 1 and will cost the government Rs.4,938.78 crore in the current 2012-13 fiscal. The annual burden of the additional DA to the government would be Rs.7,408.24 crore, said officials.
The proposal was cleared by the union cabinet at its meeting presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The increase in DA is in accordance with the Sixth Pay Commission formula.
Govt okays package for defence personnel
Meeting a long-pending demand of 1.3-million strong defence personnel, the government also cleared a Rs.2,300-crore (about $430 million) proposal to fix their pay and pension anomalies, based on the recommendations of a panel set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"The cabinet today (Monday) approved Rs.2,300 crore total package for defence personnel based on a report of the committee headed by the cabinet secretary on defence pay and pensions," said a senior government official.
The panel also looked into the ex-servicemen's issues such as 'one rank - one pension' (that all retired officers of the same rank and service tenure should get the same pension), enhancement of family pension, dual family pension, and family pension for mentally and physically challenged children of armed forces personnel on marriage.