Telangana | Release of two DA instalments to delay implementation of revised pay scales?

You don’t have any Active Subscription.

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

Release of two out of five pending installments of Dearness Allowance (DA) will entail expenditure of ₹2,500 crore for Telangana government. A view of Telangana State Secretariat. File | Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL

The Telangana Government has partly conceded the persistent demand from the employees for implementation of hike in dearness allowance (DA) due since July 2023 by announcing release of two out of five pending instalments of State DA.

But the announcement has raised doubts on the implementation of the impending revised pay scales. Release of the pending five DA instalments, due from July 1, 2023, would have resulted in enhancement of salaries by 15.43%. But the government has released two instalments amounting to around 5% reportedly imposing ₹2,500 crore burden on the exchequer.

According to a tentative calculation made by senior officials engaged in Pay Revision Commission (PRC) work, one per cent increase in the DA would result in a burden of ₹40 crore a month on the government, amounting to ₹480 crore a year. In turn, it would result in a burden of ₹6,115 crore if the government releases all the five pending DA instalments working out to 12.74%.

The announcement of DA pertaining to July 2026is still to be made and another DA instalment will be added from January next year compounding the problems of the State Government on financial front. In addition to announcing the two instalments of DA, the government said it would release the arrears due from July 2024 in instalments without specifying the period by which the total arrears would be paid.

On the pay revision front, the government has assured that it would implement the revised pay scales after the Pay Revision Commission headed by retired bureaucrat N. Siva Sankar submits its report along with recommendations on the fitment benefit that should be given to different cadres of employees. The calculation of the new scales will be based on the DA-merged-salary scales of the staff indicating that the implementation of the PRC recommendations would depend on the release of the remaining instalments of the DA.

The government had specified that the PRC should consider the current pay scales of the Telangana employees vis-a-vis pay scales of employees of other States and Central government. The commission should also take into account “the State’s revenue growth, State Government’s commitments for ongoing and future investments, development programmes and welfare schemes among others” for framing its recommendations.

Given the stress on finances due to commitments like implementation of a spree of welfare schemes, mounting debt servicing burden and other factors, it is unlikely that the government would take a call on the implementation of the PRC recommendations in the near future.

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.