The Bengal government has announced another 4 per cent dearness allowance for its eight lakh employees in its budget statement tabled in the Assembly on Thursday, taking the total DA to 14 per cent with effect from May 2024.

“To provide some relief against inflation, I am announcing another 4 per cent DA from our limited resources, effective from May 2024. I hope our employees will be happy with this announcement,” reads the budget statement tabled by Chandrima Bhattacharya, minister of state (independent charge), finance department, in the House on Thursday.

The announcement assumes significance in the backdrop of the agitation being carried out by a section of the state government employees who have been demanding DA on a par with their central government counterparts.

Their protests have been backed by Opposition leaders in the past as well.

Currently, Bengal government employees get 36 per cent less DA compared to central government employees.

With this announcement, the difference in DA is expected to come down to 32 per cent.

However, state government employees’ unions said that this hike would not benefit them.

“The Centre is likely to announce a fresh instalment of DA soon. So the difference between the central government employees and the state government employees will not decrease. We demand that all our dues should be cleared in one go,” said a union leader.

According to the sources in the finance department, the state government would have to shoulder an extra burden of Rs 3,100 crore annually to give this 4 per cent hike.

A rough estimate suggests that the state government would have to shoulder a burden of Rs 41,000 crore to clear the due DA of all its employees.

“Our struggling coffers don’t permit the state government to shoulder such a huge burden. The employees should be happy that the state gave a hike of 8 per cent DA in a gap of just five months as the employees were given a 4 per cent DA hike only in January this year. This proves that our chief minister is sympathetic to the demands of the government employees, but the poor condition of finances did not allow her to meet their demands fully,” said a senior bureaucrat.

A section of government officials said the ruling establishment was forced to announce the 4 per cent DA hike in the budget at this juncture in a bid to keep the employees in good humour ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

“These state employees will be engaged in poll duty.... They will hold the fort in the polling booths. No government will like to face polls with aggrieved employees manning booths,” said a bureaucrat.