Bengal govt hikes DA for employees by 3% - All you need to know
The development came mere days after state government officials staged protests demanding pending dearness allowance. Earlier this week the issue also reached the Lok Sabha as BJP and TMC MPs locked horns over the pending dearness allowance payments.
The West Bengal government has hiked the dearness allowance for state employees - including teachers and pensioners - by 3%. The announcement was made by Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya as the state government presented a ₹3.39-lakh crore budget for 2023-24.
The development came mere days after state government officials staged protests demanding pending dearness allowance. Earlier this week the issue also reached the Lok Sabha with BJP and TMC MPs locking horns over the pending dearness allowance payments.
"Employees of the West Bengal government are sitting on a hunger strike… They are not getting their dearness allowance," BJP MP Saumitra Khan had asserted on Monday, calling for the Central government to 'directly' address the issue.
Meanwhile, the Centre is likely to increase DA for over 1 crore employees and pensioners by around 4% in the near future. This will increase the dearness allowance from 38% to 42%.
The dearness allowance for employees and pensioners are worked out on the basis of the latest Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) brought out by the Labour Bureau every month. The Labour Bureau is a wing of the Labour Ministry.
The West Bengal budget also proposed waiving agricultural income tax on tea gardens for two years and the extension of credit facility to young entrepreneurs. Bhattacharya said that the state GDP was projected to grow at 8.4% and the industry at 7.8% in the ongoing 2022-23 fiscal.
The minister said a ₹350-crore fund will be set up to extend credit of up to ₹5 lakh each to 2 lakh young entrepreneurs. The budget also proposed full waiver of charges on irrigation water supplied to farms and announced plans for construction of 11,500-km of rural roads at a cost of ₹3,000 crore.
(With inputs from agencies)
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First Published:15 Feb 2023, 03:05 PM IST
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