Agartala, August 02: Tripura cabinet on Tuesday approved a hike of 5 percent in the Dearness Allowance (DA) for the government employees, state minister said.

Briefing the cabinet decision in a press conference, Minister for Information and Cultural Affairs Sushanta Chowdhury said the decision would come into effect from July 1, 2022.

He said, as decided by the council of ministers, the pensioners including family pensioners would also get 5 percent Dearness Relief (DR).

According to Chowdhury, the decision taken by Dr. Manik Saha-led government would require an additional fund of Rs. 523.80 crore per year to implement the decision.

Meanwhile, it was the second hike in DA of employees announced the BJP-IPFT government. Earlier, the then Biplab Kumar Deb-cabinet had announced 3 percent DA.

The central government employees are getting around 34 per cent DA at present, Chowdhury said, adding that the Tripura government was trying to mitigate the gap.