DA hike delay: NC-JCM seeks cabinet secretary's intervention for dearness allowance announcement

Calls for announcing the dearness allowance hike (DA hike) for January 2026 are picking up steam as the National Council (staff side), Joint Consultative Machinery, (NC-JCM), has sent a letter to the cabinet secretary of the central government to step in and prompt the government to make an announcement soon.

While the NC-JCM reached out to the cabinet secretary, one of its affiliated bodies, the Confederation of Central Govt. Employees & Workers, organised a nationwide lunch-hour protest on Thursday (April 16, 2026) to voice their frustration over the delay in announcing the DA hike. The confederation also wrote a similar letter to the cabinet secretary on April 14, 2026.

In a letter dated April 13, 2026, Shiva Gopal Mishra, secretary, NCM-JCM, highlighted how a delay in the DA hike announcement is creating discontent and apprehensions among employees and pensioners.


“You are well aware that so far the DA/DR instalment due to the central government employees and pensioners w.e.f January is declared during the last week of March every year. Unfortunately, this year so far, the government has not declared DA/DR due from January 1, 2026. This has created discontent and apprehensions among central government employees and pensioners,” states NC-JCM in its letter to the cabinet secretary.

Also Read: 8th Pay Commission salary hike: Why NC-JCM wants minimum basic pay to rise from Rs 18,000 to Rs 69,000

NC-JCM has asked the cabinet secretary to intervene and arrange for the declaration of the DA hike with effect from January 1, 2026. “We request you to kindly intervene in the matter and arrange for the declaration of DA/DR instalment due from January 1, 2026, without further delaying the matter,” says Mishra.



The current DA rate is 58%, and as per the 12-month average inflation data from All India Consumer Price Index-Industrial Workers (IW), a 2% hike is expected.

Dearness Relief (DR) for pensioners is also at 58% and a similar hike is expected for them as well since it is also linked to the AICPI-IW benchmark.

Also Read: 8th Pay Commission update: NC-JCM seeks Rs 69,000 minimum basic pay, 3.83 fitment factor for employees, pensioners

The central government announces the DA hike twice a year- for January and July. However, it doesn’t announce the hike in the same month. The government prefers announcing the hike around a festival such as Holi and Diwali. But it may also delay the announcement like it did last year and this year.

In 2025, the DA hike announcement came on March 28, days after Holi was celebrated on March 14.

However, the announcement for the July 2025 DA hike was made in October 2025, weeks before Diwali.

Central government employees had been waiting for a similar announcement ahead of Holi this year which was celebrated on March 4. However, their wait is still not over as the government has delayed the DA hike announcement the longest time in the last 10 years.

DA hike official order dates (from 2016-now)

Govt order date	DA rate (%)	DA hike (%)
October 6, 2025	58%	3%
April 2, 2025	55%	2%
October 21, 2024	53%	3%
March 12, 2024	50%	4%
October 20, 2023	46%	4%
April 3, 2023	42%	4%
October 3, 2022	38%	4%
March 31, 2022	34%	3%
October 25, 2021	31%	3%
July 20, 2021	28%	11%
April 23, 2020	DA/DR frozen at 17%	—
October 14, 2019	17%	5%
February 27, 2019	12%	3%
September 7, 2018	9%	2%
March 15, 2018	7%	2%
September 20, 2017	5%	1%
March 30, 2017	4%	2%
November 4, 2016	2%	0%
April 7, 2016	125%	6%

Why is the government delaying the DA hike announcement?

Adhil Shetty, CEO, Bankbazaar.com, told ET Wealth Online that administrative coordination and final approvals often influence the exact timing of announcements, which seems to be the case here also.

“The lag in the DA announcement this year appears to stem from a combination of process-related factors rather than any uncertainty around the revision itself. The formal DA notification depends on multiple stages of review and approval within the system. Variations in this sequencing can shift timelines without altering the outcome,” says Shetty.