Bringing cheers to its employees ahead of the Durga Puja, the State Govenrment on Tuesday announced a 10 per cent increase in their Dearness Allowance (DA) with retrospective effect from July 1, 2013.
Chief Minister Naeen Patnaik approved the Finance Department proposal to release an additional instalment of DA to the employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners at 10 per cent over the existing rate of 80 per cent.
The hike of DA and DR to 90 per cent of the basic pay would benefit four lakh employees and three lakh pensioners.While the increased DA would be paid in cash along with their October salary, the outstanding DA from July to September would be given by March 2014.The impact on the State exchequer would be an additional amount of Rs 600 crore per annum. The Government had last hiked the DA in July last year.