DA Merger hope still alive

Centaral Government has deferred  the decision on DA merger of central govt employees..The government had announced a hike of 10
per cent taking it up to 90 per cent in September last year, effective from
July 1, 2013."The Union Cabinet approved the proposal to release an
additional instalment of DA and dearness relief (DR) to pensioners with
effect from January 1, 2014, in cash, but notbefore the disbursement of the
salary for the month of March 2014 at the rate of 10 per cent increase over
the existing rate of 90 per cent," said an official statement.The government
also approved the terms of reference of the 7th Pay Commission, a move
which would pave the way for merger of 50 per cent DA with basic pay. The
Commission can now suggest the merger in its interim report. The 50 per
cent DA merger with basic pay will roughly increase the gross salaries of
central government employees by around 30 per cent.
Now it is depend on 7th pay commission to suggest the da merger as interim relief and that will be possible only after general election.


The 10% DA hike may be news to the media but not for the govt.
employees, who always knew it. The employees were expecting an
announcement on DA merger, which never came. If the govt imagines
that the DA hike announcement will translate into votes, they are
sadly mistaken.


The 3rd CPC had recommended such merger when
the Cost of Living index crosses over 272 points i.e.72 points over and
above the base index adopted for the pay revision. In other words, the
recommendation of the 3rd CPC was to merge the DA when it crossed
36%. The Govt. in the National Council JCM at the time of negotiation
initially agreed to merge 60% DA and later the whole of the DA before
the 4th CPC was set up. The 5th CPC merged 98% of the DA with pay.
It is, therefore, necessary that the Govt. takes steps to merge 50% of
DA with pay for all purposes to compensate the erosion of the real
value of wages of Central Govt. Gazetted Officers and employees.
Friends we know that govt will not merge da as it was not announced in RG election rallies.