The Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare (DoPPW) has announced a major update on the payment of arrears to central government pensioners.
The department in a memorandum said that the payment of arrears for the Dearness Relief (DR) will not occur before the pension disbursement scheduled for October 2024.
The Centre earlier this month announced a dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) hike of 3%, taking it to 53% of the basic salary of the central government employees. DA is applicable to serving central government employees while DR is given to pensioners.
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The DA and DR hike benefits various categories of pensioners, including civilian Central Government pensioners, Armed Forces pensioners, and Railway pensioners, among others. Notably, it also applies to pensioners who receive provisional pensions and those from displaced government pensioners of Burma and Pakistan.
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Under the new guidelines, any fractional amount of the Dearness Relief will be rounded up to the nearest whole rupee. However, the payment of arrears for the Dearness Relief will not occur before the pension disbursement scheduled for October 2024.
The memorandum also clarifies that existing regulations will continue to apply for employed family pensioners and re-employed Central Government pensioners. Separate orders will be issued for retired judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts.
Pension disbursing authorities, including nationalized banks, have been instructed to calculate and process the DR for each pensioner without waiting for further instructions. This decision follows consultations with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, in accordance with constitutional requirements.
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