Will government announce DA hike after Dussehra?
Central government employees are eagerly awaiting a dearness allowance (DA) hike after the cabinet meeting on October 14, 2026. Although the cabinet did announce a Performance Linked Bonus (PLB) for all Railway employees, the DA hike was not mentioned. This means central government employees who had been anticipating a DA increase for July 2026 are still waiting for the announcement.
The big question is whether the DA will be announced at the next cabinet meeting on October 21, the day after Dussehra. C Srikumar, secretary of the All India Defence Employees’ Federation (AIDEF), believes the DA hike is likely to be announced in the next cabinet meeting. However, Manjeet Patel, president of the All India New Pension Scheme Employees’ Federation, is less optimistic, stating that an announcement before Wednesday doesn't seem imminent.
The current government has a history of announcing DA hikes after Wednesday cabinet meetings, as well as on other days. The next DA hike is expected to be based on the June and December retail inflation indices.
Written by urgent.news from The Economic Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
