AICPIN for June 2019 released. Central D.A. to hike @5% from July

Consumer Price Index Numbers for Industrial Workers - CPI(IW) for June 2019 is released. It has increased two points and reached at 316.
Click here for the Press release
With this it can be confirmed that D.A. for central employees and pensioners will be hiked by 5% from 01.07.2019.
Cabinet likely to approve it by September and final order will be followed there after.

Exact hike in Central D.A. from 01.07.2019 to be known today

Labour Bureau will release AICPIN data for the month of June 2019 today afternoon. The exact hike  in Central D.A. for July 2019 can be calculated only after getting the number.
At present, the Dearness Allowance (DA) of central govt employees is 12 per cent.
Based on the last few months' data, it is expected a hike of at least 4% and may reach upto 5%. View Details.
So, all eyes on the labour bureau !

SAT directs WB Govt. to pay D.A. at central rate

The state will have to pay DA at the central rate.
The state will decide how to provide the DA. SAT said it would be discriminatory if it did not provide DA at the center rate. 

The SAT has ordered it to be implemented within a year or before the Sixth Pay Commission's judgment. 
The Kolkata High Court on August 7 last year ruled that DA state had the legal rights of public servants. The High Court, which declared the verdict, asked the SAT to determine the rate of DA of state government employees. Do state government employees get the same amount of DA as central government employees? The State Administrative Tribunal is asked to decide. Then, on October 1 last year, the DA case hearing was closed. But after that, a special hearing was filed in the High Court by submitting a review petition on behalf of the state. 

West Bengal to hike Primary Teachers' pay

West Bengal Education Minister announced hike in pay scale of primary teachers. According to his announcement, scale will be hiked from 5400 - 25200 to 7100 - 37600.
Grade Pay to be hiked from 2600 to 3200
Govt. will also introduce promotion policy for the Primary Teachers.
Another demand of cancellation of recent transfer of 14 teachers were also addressed by him. He assured that it will be done as per norms.
The enhancement of pay will cost Rs 1170 Crores to the state exchequer.
It may be mentioned that teachers were on a fast for the last 13 days for this demands. The demands are partially met as they demanded more lucrative pay structure.
A proposal to the hike announce sent for approval

WB sixth pay commission likely to submit report this week

According to sources and media reports the much awaited report of the West Bengal Sixth Pay Commission likely to  be submitted this week. Chairman of the commission Sri Abhirup Sarkar informed that the report is ready and will be submitted as and when C.M. asks him to do so, according to a media report.
According to media report, the basic pay is likely to be increased by 14.3%, which may cost more than Rs 12,500 Crores to the state exchequer if implemented.
As per the common practice, the report has to be cleared by cabinet and implemented through a committee.
As per sources, the new may may be implemented from November 2019 and chances of any arrears stand remote. 

IT return filing : Due Date extended

The Due date of filing of Income Tax Returns for most of the individual taxpayers extended to 31st August from 31st July this year.
Click here for the order

BSNL mulling reduction of retirement age, employees to protest

Even as Group of ministers (GoM) is working on a revival proposal for BSNL/MTNL, any move to reduce the retirement age to 58 is set to face opposition from the employees, who are set to legally challenge every decision in this regard.

According to sources, the GoM, headed by home minister Amit Shah, is deliberating on an option to reduce the retirement age to 58 years from the current 60, which will make BSNL lighter by 30,000 employees. However, the option will be strongly opposed by the staff, who feel that the government is duty-bound to honour the current retirement age.

AICPIN of May 2019 and impact on central D.A., wef 01.07.2019

The consumer price index for May 2019 has been increased by 2 points and reached at 314.
We know that Dearness Allowance is calculated on last 12 months' average of AICPIN No.
We are yet to get the number of June 2019 to calculate it finally. If the index remains at this point (314) for June 2019, D.A. will be 5% from 1st July 2019.
If the index slips even one point in the next month, increase in D.A. will come down to 4%.
But it may be assured that in any case. D.A. will not come down below 4%.
So we have to wait till 31st July 2019 (when the AICPIN data of June 2019 will be published by the labour bureau) to know the exact increase in D.A. ( 4% or 5%) with effect from July 2019.