Freezing of Dearness Allowance without consulting the National JCM should be rolled back immediately.

Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers of  Karnataka State oppose the freezing of Dearness Allowance from 1^st Jan 2020 to 30^th June 2021 without consulting the National JCM and the concerned Central Government employees Associations . It has a vide impact on the Central Government employees and pensioners by causing hardship to them. The morality of the Central Government employees is being affected by these actions.  

    Government is a model employer it should be role model for others, if Central Government takes this view , what about State Governments and private employers. They will act drastically on the wage cut.

      The basic purpose behind the provision of dearness allowance is to offset the rise in prices of consumption goods and to protect the real wages from being encroached by price rise.

      In the 7^th CPC the Central Government employees has already got less wage fixed due to wrong price index adopted by the 7^th CPC ,this issue is still not resolved from past four  years,   there basic pay should have been fixed at least at   Rs 21000/ and multiplying factor should have been at 3.00 instead of 2.56, now the Central Government employees  lost about 13 % wage hike, Now additional 12% DA is freeze is applied ,  so totally our wages of Central Government employees and pensioners  are eroded by 25%. It will also affect the Transport Allowance   payments apart from DA, as DA is linked to Transport Allowance  .        

     In respect of serving Central Government employees the on an average  loss is about Rs 1.2 lakhs , the effect of the DA freeze is felt for those who are retiring in this year and next year . Where DA factor is taken into account for both leave encashment and gratuity calculation on an average about Rs 1.5 lakhs less amount is received at the time of retirement. 

  The Central Government employees have contributed generously to the PM care fund and shown willingness to the contribution upto March 2021. We Central Government employees are always at forefront of any calamity, we Central Government employees have worked taking risk factor of Covid19 conditions at respective offices ,  Post offices , Goods Trains, Income tax offices etc were  in operation even in covid19 conditions  , there are a large chunk of Doctors and  medical staff such as in CGHS, Government run hospitals, Army , Defence personnel ,  who have worked and sacrificed their life   for the nation for these people also the DA freeze is affected .

 

  We do understand that lockdown is quite essential for fighting the deadly Corona Virus (Covid19), there has been an impact of revenue collection to the Central Government  and State Governments, We the Central Government employees are with the nation and contributed towards the PM relief fund for one year . If any more contribution is required from the Central Government employees we are ready to do it . But freezing of DA for one and years will impact the Central Government employees also both in terms of morality and hardship . If Central Government with consultation of JCM had postponed the payment of   Dearness Allowance it would have a better option rather than freezing it.

  The total impact on DA payment is estimated at Rs 38,000/- crores for one and years actually 12 lakhs Central Government posts are vacant, that means actually only Rs 30,000/- crores is only estimated, but due to the fall in crude oil prices the Central Government has gained lot of money, the government has hiked special additional excise duty and road and infrastructure cess by a total of Rs 3/- per litre for petrol and diesel. Though retail prices of petrol and diesel are not seen to increase immediately, going by the consumption trends, the move will fetch an additional Rs 47,000 crore to the government in financial year 2020-21. The crude oil price which was at 70 USD  a barrel is at about 30 USD  a barrel.  India imports 85% of the crude oil requirements, the reduced prices of crude oil prices has yelled more revenue to the Central Government.  

    Crores of people have also contributed towards the PM care fund.  If   proper cost cutting done on expenditures like seminars , public interaction programs ,  foreign travel , public meetings, newspaper advertisements, restricted air travel, purchase of equipment’s, official travels etc, are avoided by the Government for a period of one year then the   Central Government will save lot of funds which can be utilized to fight Covid19. 

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on 29/4/2020 has approved $1.5 billion loan to India to help fund its fight against corona virus pandemic. The loan has been sanctioned with a view to support immediate priorities such as disease containment and prevention, as well as social protection for the poor and economically vulnerable sections. 

Thus the Central Government will  having sufficient funds to manage the finances of the country and tackling the Covid19. 

        The Central Government employees are ready to make much more contributions voluntarily if required by the nation, but there rights should not be snatched by the Central Government according to the nation needs.  

   Hence these freezing of Dearness Allowance from 1^st Jan 2020 to 30^th June 2021 without consulting the National JCM should be rolled back immediately.

Issued by COC Karnataka