DA hike likely to be approved on 20th September, 2013

The central government is likely to hike the dearness allowance (DA) of its employees and the dearness allowance of the pensioners (DR) by 10%, at the cabinet meeting on 20-09-2013. 

In what can be seen as major sop for a large section of aam aadmi, this will be the second DA hike in a financial year. More importantly, also ahead of the 2014 general elections. This will directly benefit 5 million employees and 3 million pensioners. The move can also help infuse more money into the economy.

According to revised data released on August 30, retail inflation for factory workers for June stood at 11.63%, higher than the provisional estimate of 11.06% for the month released on July 31.

The double-digit hike in DA would come after three years. It was last in September, 2010, that the government had announced a hike of 10%.