Dearness allowance for govt staff hiked to 53%

Panaji: Taking a cue from the Centre to increase the dearness allowance (DA), state govt has also hiked the DA to 53% of the basic pay for govt staff and employees of grant-in-aid schools.

This hike, aimed at compensating the rise in prices, will see a significant bump in salaries for govt employees. According to the finance department, the state exchequer will incur an additional Rs 9-10 crore every month to meet the higher DA payout.

Finance undersecretary Pranab Bhat issued the office memorandum and said that the DA will be enhanced with retrospective effect from July 1.

“The DA may be paid to the employees from Nov onwards along with the arrears of the months of July to Oct,” said Bhat in the memo issued on Wednesday.

It must be noted that govt increased the DA of its employees to 50% of basic pay from 46% in March.

On Oct 21, the Union cabinet approved the increase in DA for central govt employees and dearness relief for pensioners, effective July 1.

Dearness allowance is a portion of an employee’s base salary designed to offset the impact of inflation on their day-to-day expenditures. It is periodically reviewed, usually every six months, to align with changes in the cost-of-living index.

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