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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 15

The Union Cabinet this evening approved release of an additional instalment of dearness allowance (DA) from January 1.The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whereby the Central Government employees and pensioners would get additional 2 per cent DA (of the basic pay/pension).(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)The decision, which would benefit about 48.85 lakh Central Government employees and 55.51 lakh pensioners, was taken to compensate for price rise, an official statement said.The increase is in accordance with the accepted formula, which is based on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission.The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both dearness allowance and dearness relief would be Rs. 5,857.28 crore per annum and Rs.6,833.50 crore during the financial year 2017-18 (for a period of 14 months from January, 2017 to February, 2018), the statement added.