DA hike for AP govt staff

Amaravati: Here is a piece of good news for state government employees. The state Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu here on Wednesday, approved a raise of 2.09 per cent in dearness allowance (DA).

According to Information and Public Relations Minister Kaluva Srinivasulu who briefed the media on the Cabinet decisions, the DA has been raised from 22.008 per cent to 24.1014 per cet in accordance with the Pay Revision Commission (PRC)' recommendations of 2015.

The raise in DA is applicable with retrospective effect from January 1, 2017. For those who are drawing salaries in accordance with the UGC scales, the hike would be 136 per cent from 132 per cent. For village revenue assistants (VRAs), remuneration has been hiked by Rs 300.

The hike in the DA would be paid to the employees only from April 1, 2018. The arrears would be credited to their GPF accounts. The hike in dearness allowance places a burden of Rs 69.91 crore per month and Rs 838.87 crore per year on the state government exchequer. The hike in wages for VAOs would work out to Rs 6.57 crore. Together, the total burden would be Rs 845.44 crore, Srinivasulu said.