7th Pay Commission: Centre approves Diwali bonus for railway employees after 4% DA hike

This festive season, the central government employees and pensioners have all the reasons to celebrate. The Centre has already hiked the dearness allowance/dearness relief (DA/DR) by 4 per cent, effective from July 1, 2022, taking it to 38 per cent.

The move to hike DA/DR has benefitted over 41.85 lakh government employees and 69.76 lakh pensioners. (DA is for central government employees, while DR is for pensioners.)

In addition, the government has also approved the payment of productivity linked bonus (PLB) to railway employees for the financial year 2021-22 (FY22).

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The PLB, commonly referred to as the Diwali bonus, is usually paid every year before Dussehra. This year, the bonus -- which is equivalent to 78-day wages -- has been paid to about 11.27 lakh non-gazetted railway employees.

The maximum amount payable to an eligible railway employee is Rs 17,951 for 78 days.

The bonus is paid to various categories of employees (non-gazetted, who are not RPF/RPSF personnel), including track maintainers, drivers and guards, station masters, supervisors, technicians, technician helpers, controllers, pointsmen, ministerial staff and other group 'C' staff.

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The financial implication of the bonus has been calculated to be Rs 1,832.09 crore.

The government said that the PLB acts as a motivation for employees to work towards the improvement of railways.

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