On October 18, just before the onset of the festive season, the central government announced a raise in the dearness allowance (DA) for its employees by 4 percentage points, bringing it to 46% of the basic salary. Additionally, a bonus of 78 days’ salaries was declared for non-gazetted railway staff.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur unveiled the Cabinet decisions, stating that the increase in DA and the corresponding dearness relief (DR) will extend to 48.67 lakh central government employees and 67.95 lakh pensioners. This additional instalment of DA and DR, effective from July 1, 2023, is a biannual adjustment to offset the price rise for employees and pensioners.
The fiscal impact of the DA and DR augmentation is estimated at Rs 12,857 crore annually. Notably, the DA and DR were also elevated by 4 percentage points in March this year and September of the preceding year, with the adjustments being applicable from January 1 and July 1.
Furthermore, the railway bonus is set to benefit over 11.07 lakh non-gazetted staff, including track maintainers, loco pilots, train managers, station masters, among others, except the RPF and RPSF personnel.
This Productivity Linked Bonus (PLB) payout, appreciating the railway staff’s stellar performance, will cost the exchequer Rs 1,968.87 crore. Minister Thakur commended the railways for their remarkable performance in 2022-2023, highlighting the record cargo load of 1,509 million tonnes and nearly 6.5 billion passenger transit.