7th pay Commission: DA Hike to HRA – Govt Employees to Get These Two Benefits
7th Pay Commission: Central government employees may get double benefits in the new year. The union government can increase the dearness allowance (DA) by 4 to 5per cent this year and If the same happens, DA will reach 50 percent. In such a scenario, the government may have to hike the HRA i.e. House Rent Allowance a report by Jagran.com said. If the union government hike the DA and HR then employees would get a decent hike in their salary.
Employees who live in a rented house get the benefit of HRA. The amount of HRA varies from city to city. An employee who lives in tier-1 cities would get more HRA than an employee who lives in tier-II or tier-III Cities.
How Much DA to be Hiked?
The government employees who are working under the Central government are now getting the dearness allowance at the rate of 46%. The DA hike, if implemented, will be in effect from January 2024 and it is expected to be announced before Holi.
In general, the DA rate is revised twice a year — in January and July — based on the half-yearly data of the AICPI index. Significantly, a total of 8% DA was increased in 2023. Currently, the Central govt employees are expecting a 4% or more hike in Dearness allowance.
House Rent Allowance Category
As we discussed above hoallowancesallowance is such object where to city, the employee is living. Based on it, HRA is divided into 3 categories.e.ories i.e. X, Y and Z.
The ‘X’ category includes areas with a population of 50 lakh and more. Employees falling in this category are given 24per cent HRA as per the recommendation of the Central Pay Commission (CPC) under the 7th Pay Commission. The areas that have a population between 5 lakh to 50 lakh fall under the ‘Y’ category. The employees living here are eligible to get 16per cent HRA of the basic salary. The ‘Z’ category includes those employees whose population is less than 5 lakh. per cent8 per cent of livings live here.