Just before this upcoming festive season of Dussehra and Diwali, a very wonderful news is coming out for lakhs of central employees and pensioners of the country. The 'Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers' has written a letter to the Department of Expenditure of the Finance Ministry, strongly demanding to announce the installment of Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) to be implemented from July 2026 as soon as possible.
Along with this, the employee organizations have also requested for immediate release of ad-hoc bonus of up to ₹ 21,000 before Dussehra in view of the expenses to be incurred during the festive season.
Letter written to the Finance Ministry on 24 September
In this letter sent by the employees organization to the Finance Ministry on 24 September 2026, it has been made clear that this is not a demand for any kind of advance or additional benefit. The organization says that when all the necessary data and formulas of Consumer Price Index (CPI-IW) are already available, this formal process should be completed as soon as possible.
With this, the effect of the benefits payable from July 2026 will be visible in the monthly salaries of the employees without any delay and the arrears of the previous months can also be paid as per the rules. It has also been emphasized in the letter that due to children's education, household expenses and festivals, the financial pressure on the employees increases a lot at this time, hence a timely announcement will provide a huge relief to them.
How much can your dearness allowance increase this time?
The main objective of the dearness allowance, which is revised twice a year i.e. in the months of January and July, is to provide relief to the employees from rising inflation. The latest data of All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (AICPI-IW) for July 2026 has been recorded at 153.2 points.
On the basis of this data, it is being strongly estimated that this time the dearness allowance can be increased by 4 percent, after which the DA will directly increase from the current 60 percent to 64 percent. If we look at its past history, DA was 46% in July 2023, which was increased to 60% in January 2026 (which was officially announced on 18 April 2026).
Demand for Diwali bonus and starting salary up to ₹21,000
Organizations like 'Staff Side NC-JCM' and 'All India NPS Employees Federation' have asked the government to take an early decision on bonus and DA keeping in mind the festive season. The employee bodies have also urged the government to immediately release the revised bonus of up to ₹21,000 to all central employees before the holy festivals of Dussehra and Diwali.
Manjit Singh Patel, President of All India NPS Employees Federation, says that the government often releases salaries ahead of time keeping in mind the local needs. For example, in the state of Kerala, salaries are given ahead of time on the occasion of Onam, and recently due to the bank strike, salaries and pensions were released only on 25th September. According to Manjit Singh Patel, the central government usually announces the July DA revision by the end of September, after which the increased DA and old arrears get added to the employees' salary for the month of October.