The Finance Department of the Assam Government issued an Office Memorandum (OM) regarding the payment of Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) to the state government employees, pensioners, family pension holders, extraordinary pension holders, and compassionate family pension holders. The revised rates are applicable from July 1, 2023, and align with the Assam Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 2017.
According to the memorandum, the DA/DR rates have been enhanced to 46 per cent of the basic pay or basic pension, effective from July 1, 2023. The order is applicable to government employees who transitioned to the revised scale of pay from April 1, 2016, and those who elected to retain the previous scale. For the former, pay for DA purposes includes stagnation increment. Employees who chose to retain the pre-2016 scale will continue to draw DA appropriate to the pay scales in force on March 31, 2016. The order extends to work-charged employees and those paid from contingencies with posts carrying identical pay scales as regular establishment employees of corresponding categories. The sanctioned amount will be classified as DA/DR, and the expenditure will be debited to the detailed head of Salary, Wages, or Pension under the respective head of account from which government employees draw their pay and pensioners draw their pension.
The enhanced rate of DA/DR will be paid along with monthly pay/pension from December 2023. Arrear payments from July 2023 to November 2023 will be disbursed in two installments, with 50 per cent in December 2023 and the remaining 50 per cent in April 2024. The arrear DA/DR for employees whose superannuation was/is due from July 2023 to November 2023 will be considered while computing their leave encashment benefit. The Treasuries, Sub-Treasuries, and Authorised Public Sector Banks in Assam have been instructed to facilitate the payment of Dearness Relief to pensioners, family pension holders, and extraordinary pension holders based on the issued memorandum.