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The central government has officially addressed the widespread speculation regarding the merger of Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief with the basic pay of central government employees and pensioners during the ongoing session of Parliament providing clarity on a significant financial matter The Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary provided a written reply to a query raised by a member of the house clarifying that there is no proposal currently under consideration to merge the DA and DR with the basic salary even though the allowance rates have crossed the fifty percent threshold This clarification serves as a response to millions of government staff who were anticipating a revision in their salary structure based on the assumption that the dearness component would be absorbed into the basic pay once it breached the specific limit
The Minister explicitly stated that the Seventh Central Pay Commission had not made any recommendation for the automatic merger of Dearness Allowance with basic pay once the index breaches the fifty percent mark and therefore the government is strictly adhering to the existing framework without any deviation regarding this specific demand Furthermore the government also addressed the inquiries regarding the formation of the Eighth Pay Commission stating that there is no immediate plan to constitute the new commission to revise the pay structure and pension benefits The focus remains on the existing formula where certain allowances were increased by twenty five percent automatically when the DA touched the fifty percent level earlier but the core basic pay remains distinct from the dearness component This statement in the Rajya Sabha aims to put to rest the ongoing rumors and demands from various employee unions that have been advocating for the merger to offset the impact of inflation and the rising cost of living The government response indicates that the salary revisions will continue to follow the current periodic review mechanism based on the All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers rather than a structural overhaul involving the merger of components at this stage
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