New Delhi, ANI . The central government, which is engaged in overcoming the corona virus epidemic, has started cutting its expenses in view of the increasing economic burden. In this direction, the government has banned the new installments of dearness allowance to its employees and pensioners till July 1, 2021. The Finance Ministry said on Thursday that Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) for 1 January 2020 for central government employees and pensioners should not be paid.
The Ministry also said that DA and DR of 1 July 2020 and 1 January 2021 should also not be paid. The DA being withheld will also not be paid as arrears. However, the ministry definitely said that dearness allowance and dearness relief will continue to be paid at current rates. The government will save a total of Rs 37,530 crore in the current financial year 2020-21 and the next financial year 2021-22. However, employees and pensioners will continue to be paid at the current level of dearness allowance. This decision will affect 50 lakh central employees and 61 lakh pensioners.
Significantly, due to the Corona crisis, the central government is continuously cutting many of its schemes. Earlier, the Central Government had asked in the Rajya Sabha to pay dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) for central government employees and pensioners from January 1, 2020.
Dearness allowance and dearness relief is paid to central government employees and pensioners every year from January 1 and July respectively and is paid in the months of March and September respectively.
Significantly, on 10 October 2019, the central government increased the dearness allowance. At that time the government had increased the DA by 5 percent.
