DA Hike 2026 Announcement Likely in Second Week of April, 2% Increase to 60% Expected

The Dearness Allowance (DA) hike for central government employees and pensioners has not been announced yet. The delay comes even as the usual timeline for the revision has passed.

The central government revises Dearness Allowance (DA) for employees and Dearness Relief (DR) for pensioners twice a year. The revision is implemented from January 1 and July 1. The announcement is generally made around Holi and Diwali.

In 2025, the DA hike effective from January was announced on March 28. The official order was issued on April 2. In 2024, the government order was released on April 3. The current delay marks a departure from this pattern.

The only similar instance in recent years was during the COVID-19 period. The government had frozen DA at 17 percent for 18 months from October 2019 to July 2021. The order for this was issued on April 23, 2020.

There is no official statement yet on the reason for the delay.

The DA revision is based on the 12-month average of the All-India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (AICPI-IW). According to available data, a 2 percent increase is expected. If approved, DA will rise from 58 percent to 60 percent.

The tenure of the Seventh Pay Commission ended on December 31, 2025. However, DA revisions continue under the same framework.

Experts indicate that the announcement may be made in the second week of April.