UP govt hikes dearness allowance for govt employees from 17% to 28%

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday announced that the dearness allowance (DA) for all its employees will be increased to 28 per cent ahead of the festival season. Announcing the decision in state assembly, chief minister Yogi Adityanath said that increase DA will come into effect from July 1, 2021.

He also said that the provident fund (PF) contribution will also be increased. The government employees in Uttar Pradesh were so far getting 17 per cent DA.

Since the UP government has announced an increase in the DA, the salaries of the employees will go up. The PF contribution is calculated based on the basic salary and the dearness allowance. Now, when the amount is increasing, the amount the employees can contribute to PF will also go up.

The move will benefit at least 15 lakh state government employees in Uttar Pradesh. Along with this, the Adityanath government has also increased dearness relief (DR) amount, which will benefit the state's 12 lakh pensioners.

The move will cost the state exchequer ₹6,500 crore extra.

Uttar Pradesh government's decision comes weeks after the Nitish Kumar government announced an 11 per cent hike in DA for its employees and relief measures for pensioners.

The Himachal Pradesh government too the DA by six per cent, while the Gujarat government has decided to pay the DA arrears of three months to more than nine lakh salaried employees and pensioners.

Last month, the Union finance ministry issued an order to implement the Cabinet decision to hike DA for central government employees to 28 per cent from July 1.