The Union cabinet on Wednesday has hiked the dearness allowance and dearness relief for central government workers and pensioners by 300 percentage points to 34 per cent. The decision is likely to benefit about 1.16 crore people.

The additional instalment will be effective from January 1, 2022, said an official

“Our demand for arrears on frozen DA has not been met. The government says the economy is recovering and tax collection is going up. So, is the inflation and prices of all consumer goods and other commodities,” R. N. Parashar, secretary, the General Confederation of Central Government Employees, told The Telegraph.

He said the DA/DR rates have not been increased commensurately. The Centre had frozen the DA for January and July 2020 and January 2021 because of the pandemic.

Mega power projects

The Cabinet on Thursday has given the developers of 10 power projects three more years to sign power purchase agreements and continue to get tax benefits on their equipment purchases.

The projects have provisional mega power project tag and had to sign PPAs by this year to obtain the final mega power project certificate and continue to avail themselves the tax benefits.

Officials said most of the these 10 provisional mega power projects are in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

The cabinet approved an amendment to the mega power policy that would extend the time limit for the 10 projects by 36 months to furnish documents required to become certified “mega” projects so as to avail themselves the tax benefits.

The extension of time period will enable developers to competitively bid for future PPAs (Power Purchase Agreements) and get tax exemptions as per policy terms, an official statement after the CCEA meeting said.

CA bill passed

The Lok Sabha on Wednesday cleared a bill to amend the laws governing chartered accountants, cost accountants and company secretaries providing for revamping the disciplinary committees of the respective professional institutes.

Once the amendments come into force, the presiding officer of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) will be a non-chartered accountant.

Similarly, disciplinary committees of the institutes of cost accountants and company secretaries would also be presided over by individuals who are not cost accountants and company secretaries, respectively.

Cabinet call

• DA increased to 34%
• Higher sum from
January
• Provisional mega power developers get 3 years more to get full mega power project status
• LS passes CA bill