New Delhi, February 19: The union cabinet on Tuesday approved an additional 3 per cent hike in dearness allowance or DA for central government employees and pensioners under the 7th Pay Commission. The increase in DA will come into effect from January 1, 2019. Earlier, the employees were given a dearness allowance of 9 per cent which has now been hiked to 12 per cent.

About 48.41 lakh central government employees and 62.03 lakh pensioners will be benefitted from this increase in DA. The increase is in accordance with the accepted formula, which is based on the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission. "Cabinet approves additional DA of 3% over the existing rate of 9% to govt. employees and dearness relief to pensioners from 1.1.2019 (sic)," Sitanshu Kar, government's spokesperson, tweeted. 7th Pay Commission: No Alternate Proposal to Hike Minimum Wages or Fitment Factor, Clarifies MoS Finance.

In August last year, the union cabinet had increased dearness allowance from 7 per cent to 9 per cent. The dearness allowance had been increased from 5 per cent to 7 per cent in March last year. Dearness allowance is a cost of living adjustment allowance paid to government employees including pensioners.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 19, 2019 08:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).