A day after Centre froze a hike in dearness allowance (DA) for its employees till July 2021, the Congress on Friday slammed the government over its move accusing it of hurting middle-class employees and pensioners. The step was taken by the Centre because of the strain on its finances due to coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.
Congress said that instead of curtailing its wasteful expenses, the government is hurting its staff. It added that the government should cut 30 per cent of wasteful expenses, shelve central vista and bullet train projects to save money for coronavirus fight.
Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi called the decision 'insensitive and inhumane'. He tweeted, "It is an insensitive and inhumane decision of the government to cut the DA of central employees, pensioners and jawans serving the public instead of suspending the multi-million crore bullet train project and the Central Vista beautification project."
The announcement of the Centre is likely to impact nearly 50 lakh central government employees and 61 lakh pensioners. "In view of the crisis arising out of COVID-19, it has been decided that additional instalment of dearness allowance payable to central government employees and dearness relief (DR) to central government pensioners due from January 1, 2020, shall not be paid,'' the Finance Ministry said in its order.
"The additional instalment of DA and DR due from July 1, 2020, and January 1, 2021, shall also not be paid," the Department of Expenditure said in an office memorandum. However, DA and DR at current rates will continue to be paid, it added.
It may be noted that the Union Cabinet had approved an increase of 4 per cent to DA in March to 21 per cent. The government’s tax revenues have plummeted because of the COVID-19 lockdown while expenses have shot up because of the support provided to the vulnerable groups. The government revises the dearness allowance twice a year to compensate for the rise in prices. The next revision is now scheduled in July.
This is possibly the first coronavirus impact on central government employees. The government had earlier cut salaries of ministers, PM, president and members of parliament by 30 per cent.
In addition, their MPLADs scheme has also been suspended for two years to provide more funds to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The total savings on the scheme would be about Rs 8,000 crore.
