The central government is yet to announce the dearness allowance (DA) for July 2026. Chances are dim that it will announce the hike over the weekend. If it doesn’t announce it on Saturday or Sunday, there is a likelihood that it may delay the announcement till the next weekly cabinet meeting, which usually happens on Wednesday. For that reason, the next cabinet meeting may happen on October 28, 2026.
Can the DA announcement be delayed till the next cabinet meeting?
The government makes many big announcements for different sectors after weekly cabinet meetings. Since DA and dearness relief (DR) impact more than one crore central government employees and pensioners, the government often announces the hike after a cabinet meeting. So, there is a possibility that it may announce it in the next cabinet meeting, which may take place on October 28.
However, it’s not an established rule to announce the DA hike after a cabinet meeting. The Department of Expenditure, Finance Ministry, can notify the DA hike without waiting for a cabinet announcement.
Long wait, no DA hike announcement
Expectations were high that the government would announce the DA hike in the first week of October, but it skipped the announcement in the first weekly cabinet meeting of the month on October 6.
Many experts believed that the hike would be announced at the second weekly meeting of the month on October 14.
However, the government approved the Performance-Linked bonus of Railway employees on that day, but didn’t say anything about the DA hike.
On October 16, the government also announced the non-performance-linked bonus (non-PLB) for central government employees but skipped the DA announcement.
Employees were expecting that the government would announce the hike after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday (October 21), a day after Dussehra. But their hopes were dashed as the government didn’t hold the weekly meeting.
DA rate applicability
Manjeet Singh Patel, president, All India New Pension Scheme Employees' Federation (AINPSEF) says that the new DA rate will be applicable for the July-December 2026 period. If the government announces it this month, employees will get arrears for July-October along with their salary at the end of November. This is because pay is calculated from the 15th of one month to the 15th of the next month.
What can be the DA hike: 3% or 4%?
For DA calculation, the average retail inflation of July 2025-June 2026 will be taken into account. Applying the average inflation to the DA calculation formula, the estimated DA hike can be 3 percentage points. This means that the current DA rate can go up from 60% to 63%.
How DA impacts the salary of a central government employee
Employees get the DA based on their basic pay. When the DA increases, their gross salary also increases. Another salary component attached to the DA is the transport allowance (TPTA), which also rises after the DA hike.
Also Read: 8th Pay Commission gross salary hike: How Level 3 employees may get Rs 69,000 gross pay in 8th CPC.
Take the example of a Level 5 employee with a basic salary of Rs 29,200. If the DA rises from 60% to 63%, there will be an increase of approximately Rs 876 a month in their overall salary.
However, their transport allowance for a higher TPTA city will also increase by approximately Rs 108.