According to the 7th Pay Commission's latest update, the government is most likely to resolve the 18-months-pending Dearness Allowance (DA) arrears issue very soon.
According to sources, Central government employees shouldn't give up hope of receiving the unpaid DA arrears from the past 18 months i.e. from January 2020 to June 2021, in their accounts.
According to media sources, on August 18, 2022, Shiv Gopal Mishra, the National Council's Secretary (Staff Side), wrote to the Cabinet Secretary and the President of the National Council. The employee's DA arrears were addressed in the letter.
It is expected that this matter will be brought up in a meeting with the cabinet secretary around Diwali. However, the government hasn't provided any official confirmation of this.
Although the arrears have not yet been deposited, the Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief for Central Government employees and pensioners were restored to 31% from 17% as of October 2021.
There are around 60 lakh pensioners and 48 lakh central employees in the country, according to the Department of Expenditure's annual report.