Central government employees had high hopes that the Centre would announce dearness allowance (DA) after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday (October 14, 2026). Though the cabinet made a major announcement, declaring Performance Linked Bonus (PLB), or annual bonus, for all Railway employees, it didn’t make any announcement regarding the DA.
This means central government employees who had been waiting for the DA hike of July 2026 had to wait some more time. However, the big question is whether the DA will be announced in the next cabinet meeting on October 21, a day after Dussehra, which falls on October 20 this year.
Can the government announce the DA hike in the next cabinet meeting on October 21?
C Srikumar, secretary of the All India Defence Employees’ Federation (AIDEF), told ET Wealth Online that the DA hike would most likely be announced in the next cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
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Manjeet Patel, president of the All India New Pension Scheme Employees’ Federation, also said that an announcement before the cabinet meeting on Wednesday doesn’t look imminent.
The current government holds regular cabinet meetings every Wednesday. On many occasions, it has announced the DA hike after such meetings, followed by a circular by the Ministry of Finance a few days later. But it is not a set precedent as the government has also announced the DA hike on days other than Wednesday.
For example, the last DA hike was announced on a Saturday (April 18). Before that, it was announced on Wednesday (October 1, 2025) after a cabinet meeting. Previous to that, the government announced the January 2025 DA hike on a Saturday (March 28, 2025)
It is yet to be seen if the government announces it after Dussehra or if it gives a Dussehra gift to lakhs of central government employees in the form of a DA hike.
The government announces the DA hike twice a year, based on the retail inflation index of June and December.
Will the DA hike be 3% or 4%?
The current DA rate is 60%. It is calculated based on the 12-month average retail inflation. For the current DA hike, retail inflation of July 2025-June 2026 will be taken into account. As per the June retail inflation data, the DA can jump to approximately 63%.
However, it will be known only when the government announces it.
Many employee associations have written to the government to announce the DA hike soon because of rising prices of food items.
In a letter dated October 10, 2026, the AIDEF also wrote that the cost of living is increasing every day due to escalating prices of essential commodities, due to which the employees and pensioners are in a deep financial crisis.
The AIDEF had requested the government to announce the DA hike as soon as possible.