The Uttar Pradesh government has hiked dearness allowance (DA) for its employees and dearness relief (DR) to its pensioners by four percent from January 1, 2023. The decision was taken by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday night. The DA and DR hike would reportedly benefit 16.35 lakh employees and 11 lakh pensioners in the state.
Following the hike, the DA and DR rate for employees and pensioners will increase from 38 percent to 42 percent.
Earlier, in March 2023, the Rajasthan government had announced a 4 percent increase in dearness allowance for state employees. The Himachal Pradesh government led by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had also announced a 3 percent dearness allowance hike for the state employees and pensioners.
Dearness Allowance (DA) is the cost-of-living adjustment allowance which the government pays to the employees of the public sector as well as pensioners of the same. On the other hand,
dearness relief (DR) is the same as allowance and is given to central government pensioners.
At central level, government usually revises the DA/DR rate every six months. This is done to compensate for the loss in purchasing power of the monthly salary/pension wealth due to inflation. In line with this, the state government announces bi-annual hike in DA and DR, usually in January and July.
