Telangana Govt Needs Rs 6,174 Cr To Clear 2 DAs

 Hyderabad: The government will require Rs 6,174 crore to clear the arrears of two pending dearness allowances (DAs) being released to government employees and pensioners, with the arrears to be paid in installments. The two DAs will benefit 6,91,940 employees, pensioners and other categories of government personnel.



The two DAs are the installments due from January 1, 2024 and July 1, 2024. The first DA has accumulated arrears for 33 months from January 2024 to September 2026, amounting to Rs 3,810 crore, while the second DA has arrears for 27 months from July 2024 to September 2026, amounting to Rs 2,364 crore. Together, the arrears come to Rs 6,174 crore.



The government will have to provide around Rs 208 crore every month from now to meet the recurring expenditure on the two DAs, translating into an additional annual burden of about Rs 2,500 crore on the state exchequer.



The two DAs will add 6.37 percentage points to the existing DA. The amount will be included in the October salary and paid along with the salary credited on November 1.For an employee with a basic pay of Rs 1 lakh, the two DAs will result in an increase of Rs 6,370 in monthly salary.



The government will also provide a temporary increase of Rs 100 per month to Part-time Assistants and Village Revenue Assistants with effect from January 1, 2024.



In case of the death of an employee or pensioner during the period covered by the DA release order, the DA arrears will be paid to the legal heirs along with other outstanding dues.



The government has so far kept five DAs pending. The DA due from January 1, 2024 is 3.64 per cent, taking the cumulative DA to 37.31 per cent. The DA due from July 1, 2024 is 2.73 per cent, taking the cumulative rate to 40.04 per cent.The subsequent DAs due from January 1, 2025 and July 1, 2025 are 1.82 per cent and 2.73 per cent respectively, taking the cumulative rate to 44.59 per cent.

The fifth pending DA, due from January 1, 2026, is 1.82 per cent, taking the cumulative DA to 46.41 per cent.

The total DA stood at 33.67 per cent as on July 2023, with the DA percentage sanctioned every six months being added to the cumulative rate. The five pending DAs together account for 12.74 percentage points.



Of the 6,91,940 beneficiaries, 1,34,671 are GPF employees, 2,21,464 are covered under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), 34,221 are employees of grant-in-aid institutions, 2,94,945 are pensioners, 5,022 belong to village establishments and 1,617 are full-time contingent employees.



The finance department is expected to issue a special order following the Cabinet decision, after which the exact modalities for payment of the arrears will become clear. 


Employee union leaders expect the government to follow the earlier practice of crediting DA arrears to employees’ GPF accounts. During previous DA releases, the arrears covering all eligible months were deposited in the respective GPF accounts. However, the unions said they would know the exact payment procedure only after the Finance department issues the special order.



The finance department’s calculation shows that the total arrears relating to all five pending DAs, if calculated up to September 2026, work out to Rs 9,276 crore. These include Rs 3,810 crore for the first DA for 33 months, Rs 2,364 crore for the second DA for 27 months, Rs 1,237 crore for the third DA for 21 months, Rs 1,331 crore for the fourth DA for 15 months and Rs 534 crore for the fifth DA for nine months. At present, however, only the first two DAs are being released.