Big announcement of huge increase in dearness allowance! The fun of these government employees

A very good news has emerged for the officers and non-union supervisors working in central government owned companies. While the central employees are eagerly waiting for the increase in Dearness Allowance (DA) for the half year of July to December, on the other hand, the Department of Public Enterprises has officially released the new and increased rates of Industrial Dearness Allowance (IDA) for the employees of government companies. Keeping in view the impact of rising inflation, this amendment has been made in the allowance, due to which there will be a direct increase in the monthly salary of lakhs of employees.

What are the new Industrial Dearness Allowance (IDA) rates?

According to the notification issued by the government, these new revised rates of allowance will be completely applicable to all CPSE (Central Public Sector Enterprises) employees falling under the pay scales of 1987, 1997, 2007 and 2017. Under the new order, the dearness allowance of employees in the pay scale of 2017 has now directly increased to 55.7%. Apart from this, the rates of allowance have been fixed at 241.7% and 476.9% of the pay scales of 2007 and 1997 respectively.

Also, Industrial Dearness Allowance of ₹ 18,298 has been fixed on the basis of average All India Consumer Price Index of 9,854 for employees in 1987 pay scale. This enhanced and wonderful benefit will be available to all those employees who are working in major CPSE companies of the country. These include officials and non-union supervisors of government companies involved in energy, oil and gas, infrastructure, manufacturing, steel, coal, power and financial services like banking.

How much will be the direct impact on the salaries of employees?

This increase in dearness allowance will have a direct and positive impact on the monthly income i.e. salary of the employees. This can be understood with an easy example. Suppose the basic salary of an employee is ₹ 50,000 and he comes under the pay scale of the year 2017, then according to the new IDA rate of 55.7%, he will get ₹ 27,850 every month as dearness allowance alone. However, this additional amount will vary for individual employees depending on their own basic salary.

What is Industrial Dearness Allowance (IDA)?

For your information, let us tell you that Industrial Dearness Allowance i.e. IDA is actually a special allowance given to the employees to reduce the ill effects of rising inflation. Its entire calculation is done on the basis of data from All India Consumer Price Index. As inflation increases in the country, the government increases this allowance by revising it from time to time to maintain the purchasing power (buying ability) of the employees.

This latest increase has come at a time when common central employees are also waiting for an increase in their dearness allowance. It is being estimated that the increase in allowance for the general central employees for the half year from July to December may be announced by the month of September or October. Experts believe that the government can increase it by 3 to 4 percent. If this happens, the total dearness allowance of central employees will increase to 63 or 64 percent, which is currently around 60 percent.