Gujarat govt. increase DA by 5%, will cause additional Rs 1821 crore burden on exchequer

Gandhinagar: Giving a new year gift of sorts to the lakhs of employees and pensioners, the Gujarat government today announced to increase their dearness allowance (DA) by 5 % taking it to 17% from existing 12% with the retrospective effect of July 1, 2019.

Addressing a press conference here DyCM cum Finance Minister of the state Nitin Patel informed this. He said that the new DA would be paid with the January salary while the related arrears would be paid to them in two to three installments and a decision about it would be taken soon separately.

He said that the state government decision has been taken to equate the DA with that of the central government employees whose DA was recently increased from 12 to 17% as per the seventh pay commission provisions.

Patel said that due to increase in the DA the state exchequer would incur an extra financial burden of Rs 1821 crore per year.

The Panchayat employees would also get the benefits.

Notably the state government had earlier increased the DA by 3% with effect from January 2019 in June this year incurring a burden of Rs 1071 crore per year on the state exchequer.

DeshGujarat