J&K govt employees to benefit from 11% hike in DA; revised orders on DA/DR benefits issued

The Department of Finance, Jammu, and Kashmir by the order of Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha on Monday issued an order to implement the revised Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) benefits for government employees working in regular pay levels respectively, from 1st July 2021. 

The decision has come as big relief to government employees of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, whose DA and DR benefits were frozen from 1st January 2020 to 30 June 2021. 

Employees to benefit hike of 11% in DA from current 17%

The Department of Finance issued an Office Memorandum (OM) in this regard on Monday i.e. August 02, 2021, in continuation to Government Order No 456-F of 2019 dated 24-10-2019. The memorandum said that the DA hike announced for 1st January 2020, 1st July 2020, and 1st January 2021, shall be subsumed in the revised DA. So, the new DA rate applicable from 1st July 2021 to government employees will be 28% of their monthly basic salary, leading to a rise of 11 % from their current DA rate of 17 %.

According to the official memorandum of the Jammu and Kashmir Department of Finance, the term 'Basic Pay' in the revised pay structure means the pay drawn in the prescribed level in the pay matrix as per the 7th Pay Commission recommendations but does not include any other type of pay hike like special pay, etc. The department further made it clear that the increase in the DA subsumes the additional installments arising on January 1, 2020; July 1, 2020 and January 1, 2021.  The rate of Dearness Allowance for the period from January 1, 2020 till June 30, 2021, shall remain at 17%.

Decision comes in place upon implementation of the 7th Pay Commission

It may be noted here that the decision comes in place consequently upon implementation of the 7th Pay Commission Recommendations in favour of All India Service Officers, serving in connection with affairs of the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir. The department has made it clear that the rate of Dearness Allowance (DA) as applicable to Central Government Employees shall be applicable to officials in the state government of Jammu and Kashmir.

Notably, on July 14, the Cabinet Committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had approved an increase in the Dearness Allowance to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief to pensioners to 28% representing an increase of 11% over the existing rate of 17 % of the Basic Pay/Pension.