On Monday, Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa has announced to hike dearness allowance (DA) for state government employees by 10.25 per cent for the period January 2020 to June 2021. With this, the DA of employees will be 21.50 % of their basic pay, according to an order issued by the Finance Department which was under Yediyurappa. The existing DA of state government employees is 11.25 % of basic pay.
"Government is pleased to release the additional installments of the dearness allowance for the period January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021. Accordingly, the rates of dearness allowance payable to the state government employees in the 2018 revised pay scales shall be revised from the existing 11.25 per cent to 21.50 per cent of basic pay with effect from July 1, 2021," the government order said.
Yediyurappa has announced the last DA hike in October 2019, soon after he came to power in Karnataka. The state had announced a 4.7 per cent increase in DA, but due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, the state government had decided to put the move on hold for a year.
Presently, Karnataka government spends Rs 62,413 crore annually to pay bills, of which, Rs 23,413 crore goes to pensioners. The DA hike is expected to result in an additional burden of around Rs 7,000 crore on the state exchequer.
CS Shadakshari, the president of Karnataka State Government Employees' Association, has been demanding that state government employee' salaries should be brought at par with their counterparts in the Central government.
"There is a wide disparity in the salaries of the state and Central government employees. State employees draw Rs 10,000 to Rs 40,000 less than their counterparts in the Centre. The state government should rectify this," the KSGEA said earlier.