The Union Cabinet on Wednesday, i.e., October 1, approved a 3 percent dearness allowance hike ahead of Dussehra and Diwali. The hike will take effect from July 1, 2026. Notably, this will become the second DA hike this year. Previously, in March, the cabinet approved a 2 percent hike in the dearness allowance for central government employees, providing major relief to nearly 1.15 crore employees and pensioners.

The 2 percent hike was applied to the existing 53 percent of the basic pay to compensate employees for inflation. The March hike took the basic pay to 55 percent. Now, with a 3 percent hike in DA, the basic pay will go up to 58 percent.

What is dearness allowance?

Dearness Allowance (DA) is extra money that the public sector or government employees receive from their employers. I

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