Govt. freezes DA for employees, pensioners till July

The Andhra Pradesh government have issued an order freezing dearness allowance for its employees and pensioners. The DA will be paid at the current rate till July 2021. The Central government also had earlier frozen the DA/DR for its employees till July due to the COVID 19 pandemic.

The government issued GO MS No. 95 dated 06-11-2020 stating that the additional instalment of dearness allowance payable to state government employees and dearness relief to government pensioners/family pensioners, due from January 1, 2020, shall not be paid. Similarly, the additional instalments of dearness allowance and dearness relief due from July 1, 2020, to January 1, 2021, shall not be paid.

The order said that once the state government decides to release the future instalments of DA/DR due from July 1, 2021, the rates of DA/DR as effective from January 1, 2020, July 1, 2020, and January 1, 2021, will be restored and will be subsumed in the cumulative revised rate effective from July 1, 2021. No arrears for the period from January 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021, shall be paid.

The GO further said that the order shall be applicable to teaching and non-teaching staff working in government and aided educational institutions, polytechnics, employees under local bodies, employees governed by the UGC/AICTE scales of pay and all other employees drawing pay in the prescribed level of pay in the revised scales, 2015. The order is also applicable to judicial officers, who are drawing National Judicial Pay Commission scales and those drawing ICAR scales. The order is also applicable to employees of Zilla Parishads, municipalities, municipal corporations, who are on regular pay scales, work charged employees, who are drawing regular pay scales, and employees of state government undertakings/corporations/local bodies/autonomous institutions under the control of the state government.

As the Centre has taken up a similar exercise following a reduction in revenue inflow as economic activities in all sectors have come to a standstill due to Covid-19, the state government has issued the GO adopting the same measures.