8th Pay Commission Latest Update: The recommendations will be submitted to the Central Government anytime soon for making the pay commission functional from April onwards. This gives rise to the hope for a revision of the salary and allowances of central employees and pensioners to implement the recommendations of the pay commission. The most powerful impact of the 8th Pay Commission shall thus be on the dearness allowance. The central employees will have dearness allowance considered as zero, that is, zero (0). Meaning, once the new pay commission comes into effect, the dearest allowance calculation will commence from a zero base.
Dearness Allowance Will Merge In 2026
There are expectations that dearness allowance (DA) may cross the 61 percent mark by January 2026. As per the laws, whenever a new pay commission becomes applicable, the DA given in evaluations to the employees is declared to be 0; then later it is incorporated as part of the basic salary. This pay commission would also follow the same. However, there have been discussions that only 50 percent of DA would merge with the basic salary and the additional 11 percent would not be merged with basic pay. The final decision nonetheless is still undecided, and no strong, actual ground has been established by the government so far. It will be subjected to the recommendations of the new commission.
DA Calculation Will Start From Zero
Dearness allowance will now be calculated with a new foundation on the basic salary, starting from 0 with the application of the 8th Pay Commission for central employees. If the basic salary of an individual is Rs. 34200, hence the dearness allowance shall be 0 from January 2026 on top of this salary. After this, in July 2026, around 3-4 percent (what’ll be the dearness allowance by then) will be grafted on it. The calculations shall begin from after this. Since dearness allowance turns 0, the other kind of allowances will also be affected.
Why Will Dearness Allowance Be 0?
Whenever a new scale is implemented, the DA being drawn by the employees comes to be added into the basic salary. While this 100 percent DA adding into the basic could have been done in terms of provisions and rules, this is not practically possible in terms of actual financial condition. This was also done in the year 2016. Now, prior to this implementation, when the sixth pay scale came in 2006, 187 percent DA was being granted on the fifth pay scale until December. The DA was merged into the basic pay, so the sixth pay scale had a coefficient of 1.87, given with a new pay band and new grade pay. But it took three years to implement it.
When Will Dearness Allowance Be Zero?
The experts say that after the recommendations of the Pay Commission, with the 8th Pay Commission, it will be implemented from January 2026. Then the dearness allowance will be made zero. In that case, merging of the dearness allowance will only happen then and it will be calculated from zero upwards. This means the AICPI index from January to June 2026 will determine whether the dearness allowance will be 3 percent, 4 percent, or some other amount.
Also Read: 7th Pay Commission Surprise: Find Out The Latest Revelation