New Delhi: There may be good news for Central government employees on the salary front in 2023. According to media reports, the government is expected to take decisions on three issues — DA and DR hike, fitment factor revision, and clearing 18-month DA arrears. All these three decisions will fetch a bonus for government employees.
Dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) are revised twice a year, effective January 1 and July 1. The last hike, which benefitted about 48 lakh central government employees and 68 lakh pensioners, raised the DA by 4 per cent to 38 per cent. Before this, the government had raised the DA by 3 per cent to 34 per cent in March under the 7th Pay Commission. Going by the media reports, the DA and DR will be raised by 3-5 per cent in March 2023, effective January 2023. With this hike, the DA will increase up to 43 per cent, News18 reported.
Apart from this, the issue of an 18-month DA arrears payment from January 2020 to June 2021 may be addressed soon. The employees may get the payment of an 18-month DA arrear. The amount of DA arrears is decided by the employees’ pay band and structure.
Employee unions have been demanding the revision of the fitment factor in their salaries. The fitment factor is a common value which is multiplied by the basic pay to arrive at the total salary of the employees. Currently, the common fitment benefit for all groups of central government employees is 2.57. Now, if somebody is getting a basic pay of Rs 15,500 in 4200 Grade Pay, his total pay will be Rs 15,500×2.57 or Rs 39,835. The 6th CPC had recommended the fitment ratio at 1.86. Now, employees are demanding the government to raise it to 3.68, according to a media report. The hike will raise the minimum wage from Rs 18,000 currently to Rs 26,000, the report added.
