NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet on Friday approved hiking dearness allowance to 100 per cent from existing 90 per cent benefiting 50 lakh employees and 30 lakh pensioners in it meeting. The hike in DA would be effective from January 1 this year. This increase in the dearness allowance by the UPA-2 government comes ahead of the imposition of the model code of conduct by the Election Commission.
The model code of conduct is likely to come into force with the announcement of
the schedule for the forthcoming general elections in a week or so. This is the second double digit DA hike in a row. The government had announced a hike of 10 per cent to 90 per cent in September last year, effective from July 1, 2013.
As per practice, the government uses Consumer Price Index- Industrial Workers data of the past 12 months to arrive at a quantum for the purpose of any DA hike. Thus, the retail inflation for industrial workers between January 1 to December 31, 2013 was used to take a final call on the matter.
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