IT Correspondent
New Delhi, June 17:
Nearly 52 lakh central employees and 61 lakh pensioners are all set to start receiving increased dearness allowance, with arrears, from July 011, as part of the 7th pay commission.
A meeting between Central government servants’ (CGS’) representative body National Council of JCM, officials from the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) and Ministry of Finance has been scheduled for the month end. The lakhs of central government employees who have been eagerly waiting for hike in the Dearness Allowance (DA) will get revised salary from July 01. The government has already said in Parliament that their stalled dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) will be resumed from 1 July 2021.
On the arrear front, a meeting between Central government servants’ (CGS’) representative body National Council of JCM, officials from the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) and Ministry of Finance has been scheduled for June 26.
Last year, due to Corona, the government had withheld dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) of employees and pensioners, which is all set to be released this time. The decision now to restore DA from July, 2021 would benefit about 52 lakh central government employees and more than 61 lakh pensioners. However, any increase in DA from July 1 will only be effective from that day, meaning the employees would not get any arrears on non-revision of DA for previous period. Therefore the meeting to be held on June 26 between the above two parties will decide on the arrear benefits of DA and DR under the recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission for the government employees and pensioners.
The dearness allowance, which is currently available at the rate of 17 per cent, can be increased by 11 per cent, taking the total percentage hike to 28 percent straight. According to the All India Consumer Price Index (AICPI) data release, between January and June 2021, at least DA can be increased by 4 percent. The increased DA includes a 3 percent increase in DA from January to June 2020, a 4 percent increase from July to December 2020, and a 4 percent increase from January to June 2021. That means the total DA calculation will be (17 + 4 + 3 + 4) 28 percent.
Currently the minimum salary according to the pay matrix of central employees is Rs 18000. On the existing pay matrix, a 15 percent dearness allowance is expected to be added. Hence, on the existing pay matrix, Rs 2,700 per month will be directly added to the salary as DA. Thus, on annual basis, the total dearness allowance will increase by Rs 32400.
Besides the Central Government has increased medical claim in addition to dearness allowance for Central government employees working with the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti Schools (NVS). The Department of School Education and Literacy, which works under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Education, has notified a circular, stating that the medical claim reimbursement has been increased five times for the NVS employees.
The Commissioner of Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti schools has given the approval for the revision in the limits of medical claim reimbursements for treatment of day-to-day ailments for themselves and their family members. The circular notifies that the limit of the medical claim of NVS schools employees has been increased from Rs 5000 to Rs 25,000 per annum.
If the treatment is done in a government or CGHS recognized hospital, then the limit of medical reimbursement will be Rs 25,000 from the existing limit of Rs 5,000″ the circular states.
Besides the central government has also revised the limit of medical reimbursement for AMA (Against Medical Advice) treatment. The employees of NVS will now get a medical claim of Rs 15,000 instead of Rs 5000. AMA is used in situations wherein a patient gets himself/herself discharged without consulting the doctor. There is no additional change in the rest of the terms and conditions for NVS employees.
