Agartala, Oct 6: The Tripura government on Tuesday announced a three per cent increase in Dearness Allowance (DA) for its employees and pensioners, taking the DA rate to 44 per cent, said Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha at a press conference here in the evening in the presence of Finance Minister Pranajit Singha Roy.
The decision taken during a cabinet meeting, announced Saha citing the government’s commitment to its employees despite the state’s limited financial resources, will benefit state government employees and pensioners.
He said the BJP-led government, since coming to power in 2018, has been increasing the DA with the objective of narrowing the gap between the DA received by state government employees and their counterparts in the Centre.
“Despite the limited financial position of the state, the state government has always remained pro-government employees,” he said, adding that successive DA increases since 2018 had helped reduce the disparity with central government employees which now stands to 16 percent.
The latest three per cent increase will take the DA of state government employees and pensioners to 44 per cent, he said.
The Chief Minister also announced an increase in the house rent allowance (HRA) for regular government employees, effective from October 1. The HRA has been raised from 8 per cent to 10 per cent of basic pay, subject to a maximum ceiling of Rs 10,000 per month.
According to the government, the decision of increased house rent will entail an additional annual financial burden of Rs 141.96 crore on the state exchequer. Since the hike is being implemented part-way through the financial year, the additional expenditure for the current year would be Rs 59.15 crore, he said.
Saha said the government had taken the decision keeping in view the interests of its employees despite financial constraints.
The announcement came as the state government highlighted its measures to improve the financial benefits available to employees and pensioners while maintaining fiscal constraints.
The government has maintained that successive increases in DA since 2018 were aimed at bringing the benefits available to state employees closer to those enjoyed by employees of the central government.
