New IDA CDA Rates from April 2019 for Employees & Pensioners

Find the latest DA rates of employees and pensioners of PSU (BSNL, BHEL, BEML, BEL, REC, NTPC etc ) with new expected IDA increase on pay scales for all employees effective from 01.04.19 as per the new consumer price index numbers of 2019 to compensate the PSU employee salary against inflation, along with up to date Central Dearness allowance increased rates for government employees, pensioners, and the formula applicable to calculate the PSU / BSNL IDA or Government CDA rates…

Dearness allowance is an allowance that was introduced by the government as one of the factor for employee wage revision, later, this dearness allowance was linked to the consumer price index and the allowance is revised by the government from time to time depending in inflation and various other factors applicable to the economy, where this dearness allowance is calculated on percentage basis on Basic salary + NPA + Stagnation Increment.

The new dearness allowance of an employee becomes even more significant in an unorganized economy such as India which is fragmented into various parts such as villages, towns, cities and metros, and the component of the salary takes into account the difference in the cost of living in these different parts of the country for the employee, and the IDA or CDA is a taxable income which does not allow any type of exemption for income tax.

In case of the government employees, it becomes even more significant because they have to relocate across the country depending on the need, and thus, the cost of living would vary which is further depending on the inflation prevailing in the place of residence, and this factor would help to adjust the salary and neutralize the fluctuations between different regions with in the country.

Dearness Allowance is linked to the basic salary of the employee and is a certain percentage of the employee’s salary, and thus an employee staying in the rural area would have a different dearness allowance compared to an employee living in a metro.

Dearness Allowance is further divided into two parts as Industrial DA and Central DA, so let’s have a look at the detailed information on both the rates about the calculation and up to date increase and decrease of IDA and CDA rates.

Industrial Dearness Allowance

The allowance named as Industrial Dearness Allowance is given to the public sector undertaking employees including the pensioners to compensate the inflation prices on various items, where IDA rates which is given to PSU working and retired employees and is generally not given for the private sector employees which means that the private sector companies are not forced to provide dearness allowance as a component of the salary to their employees.

IDA is scrutinized frequently to keep it related to the inflationary pressures applying in the country and generally this frequency for changing in IDA rates is kept as QUARTER (1st January, 1st April, 1st July and 1st December of every year), where the frequent changes in the inflation in the country is the main reason for change in the industrial dearness allowance implying in a country, and IDA rates for PSU employees of working and retired is generally modified quarterly by taking the average of the previous 3 months of All India Consumer Price Index (AICPI).

IDA Calculation formula

For the calculation of the new Industrial dearness allowance rates, average of 3 months of All India Consumer Price Index as well as the Base Index is required (base index is fixed by the government from time to time separately for the public sector employees as well as the central government employees), thus, the present IDA rates can be calculated for the public sector employees (BSNL, BHEL, BEL, NTPC, and for all others) by using the below mentioned formula

New IDA rates = (Average of AICPI for previous 3 months – Base Index) * 100/Base Index.

IDA Rates of PSU employees and pensioners

The BSNL IDA is fixed as 28% on formation day of 1st October 2000, As per the orders of Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), the rate of dearness allowance for Industrial workers in the name of IDA on their pay scales as per the issued orders of DPE from time to time is given below table, which is applicable for all PSU (BSNL, BHEL, BEL and others) employees in India

Effective date	CPI Index (Average of 3months)	New IDA rates	Total IDA rates
01.01.2017	277.33	-0.8	119.5%
01.04.2017	274.33	-2.4	117.1%
01.07.2017	276.66	1.9	119
01.10.2017	283.33	5.3	124.3
01.01.2018	286.66	2.6	126.9
01.04.2018	287	0.3	127.2
01.07.2018	289	0.8	128
01.10.2018	297.667	7.6	135.6
01.01.2019	301.667	3.2	138.8
01.04.2019	305	2.6	141.4
01.07.2019	312	5.3	146.7

Central Dearness Allowance

The specially designed allowance for central government employees is Central Dearness Allowance, and thus all the employees and pensioners who are working under central government would have slight different pay scale structure and calculations for calculating CDA rates, and with effect from 01.04.2004, Central Dearness Allowance equal to 50% of the basic pay is treated as Dearness Pay, which will counted for the purpose of payment of allowance, transfer grant, retirement benefits, and contribution of GPF, Licence Fee, Monthly subscription to CGHS and various allowances, where the dearness pay will not count for LTC, TA/DA while on transfer and Government accommodation.

Let us look at the key differences to calculate the central dearness allowance, where although the benchmarks used for the calculation of dearness allowance for both industrial and central are same but there are certain minute differences between IDA and CDA with respect to the bench marks as follows

• Industrial dearness allowance (IDA) is calculated quarterly based on the basis of AICPIN for the previous 3 months whereas the CDA rates is calculated twice a year.
• The base index kept for calculating the dearness allowance rates in IDA for PSU and CDA is different.
• IDA rates is applicable to the public sector employees while the CDA is applicable to the central government employees.
• IDA and CDA rates are different for the employees and the pensioners and is applicable in India as well as the neighboring countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Central Dearness Allowance Calculation Formula

Following is the formula which is used to calculate CDA rates as per the revised central dearness allowance

• Revised CDA = (Average of AICPIN of past 12 months – Base Index) * 100/Base Index

For the calculation of CDA, Base index used is 115.76.

CDA Rates list of Central Government Employees and Pensioners

Effective date	AICPI numbers (Average of 6months)	New CDA rates	Total CDA rates
January 2016	269	0	2%
July 2016	277	2%	2%
01.01.2017	275	2%	4%
01.07.2017	280	1%	5%
Jan 2018	286	2%	7%
July 2018	291	2%	9%
01.01.2019		3%	12%

While calculating dearness allowance regarding to CDA / IDA rates, the fraction of 50 paise and more are rounded off to the next higher rupee, where as the less than 50 paise ignored.

Industrial Dearness allowance or CDA Rates has helped the employees in revision of salary and offsetting the impact of inflation and regional differences and thus bringing more job satisfaction to the employees on increasing the employee wages for the specified months in the form of IDA rates for PSU employees and CDA rates for Central Government employees / pensioners.