New Delhi: New minimum salary of government employees: Rs 26,000

New Delhi : Central government employees may get good news regarding their salaries as the Centre is likely to announce a hike in dearness allowance (DA) and fitment factor soon, according to media reports.

The minimum salary of government employees is expected to see a rise from Rs 18,000 to Rs 26,000 for central government employees after the hike in the fitment factor, according to the reports. The reports said that the government is expected to revise the fitment factor and dearness allowance (DA) soon. However, there is no official word on this.

The common fitment factor currently stands at 2.57 per cent. It means that if somebody, let’s say, gets a basic pay of Rs 15,500 in 4200 Grade Pay, his total pay will be Rs 15,500×2.57 or Rs 39,835. The 6th CPC had recommended the fitment ratio at 1.86.

There has been employees’ demand of raising the fitment factor to 3.68. The hike will raise the minimum wage from Rs 18,000 currently to Rs 26,000.

Dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) are revised twice a year, effective January 1 and July 1. According to recent media reports, the government is likely to raise the dearness allowance by another 4 per cent in July this year.

The last revision in DA was done in March raising it by 4 per cent, which became effective from January 1, 2023. After the 4 per cent hike, the DA of central government employees increased to 42 per cent. Before this, the DA was hiked in September 2022 by 4 per cent, which became effective from July 2022.

Apart from the fitment factor, the government is also likely to revise DA soon effective July 1, according to media reports.

In January this year, the finance ministry updated the house rent allowance (HRA) rules for central government employees under the 7th Pay Commission and said they will not be entitled to HRA in cases where:

(i) He/ she shares government accommodation allotted to another government servant; or

(ii) He/she resides in accommodation allotted to his/her parents/ son/ daughter by the central government, state government, an autonomous public undertaking or semi-government organisation such as a municipality, port trust, nationalised banks, Life Insurance Corporation of India, etc; or

(iii) His/ her spouse has been allotted accommodation at the same station by the central government/ state government/ autonomous public undertaking/ semi-government organisation such as municipality, port trust, etc., whether he/she resides in that accommodation or he/she resides separately in accommodation rented by him/her.