Govt staff to get 3% extra DA

NEW DELHI: In what can be called a Diwali bonanza for babus, the Cabinet on Tuesday approved the release of an additional instalment of DA of 3%, from 49% to 52%, for its employees and pensioners.

This gesture would cost the exchequer Rs 1,079-crore annually. However, since the additional instalment will be effective from July 1, the financial burden this fiscal will be restricted to Rs 719.3 crore. This would entail a burden of Rs 773.01-crore annually and Rs 515.34 crore during the residual period of the current financial year.

Dearness relief for pensioners would cost Rs 306 crore for a year and Rs 204 crore for the remaining period of ’02-03.

Interestingly, there has been much talk and no action on expenditure contraction methods like freezing DA and suspension of annual bonus for government employees. This issue also came up for discussion at the recent state chief ministers’ conclave where no consensus emerged on taking this unpopular decision. States had maintained that they would take action provided the Centre took the lead.

The Centre, however, is obviously not too keen on annoying the salaried and middle class government employees. The government indicated its intention by announcing a bonus early this month to 92% of its workforce, amounting to an outgo of Rs 1,200 crore.

Since ’97, both the Centre and states have been announcing two DA instalments annually coming to 4%. State governments have been mounting pressure on the Centre saying that the latter should take the lead in such unpopular decisions. The DA is released twice a year, in January and July. With the Cabinet decision, the government employees would get the second tranche of DA.