Lockdown Effect: Centre Shocks Its Employees

The Corona virus lockdown has severely impacted the Indian economy. The government’s financial resources have dried up and now it has started to take saving measures. Accordingly the Centre has put on hold the hike of dearness allowance (DA) for central government employees and dearness relief (DR) for central government pensioners till July 2021.

Last month, the Centre had hiked the DA and DR by 4 percent from 17 percent of basic pay/pension to 21 percent of basic pay/pension. There are at least 50 lakh government employees and 65 lakh pensioners.

This move by Centre will help save Rs 37,350 crore in the financial years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022. A memo was released by the Finance ministry regarding the same.

This is indeed a bad news for Central government employees and pension holders but the Centre was left with no choice as the financial burden is piling up.

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