CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday hiked the Dearness Allowance (DA) of state government employees by four per cent with effect from July 1, 2023.

Chief Minister M K Stalin on Wednesday issued orders to hike the DA of 16 lakh state government employees, including teachers and pensioners, from 42 to 46 per cent.

The hike would come to effect retrospectively from July 1, 2023. The government would annually incur an additional expenditure of Rs 2,546.16 crore owing to the DA hike which would benefit state government officials, teachers, pensioners and family pensioners.

Though the hike would cause an additional expenditure of Rs 2,546 crore to the state exchequer, the state government would allocate additional funds in the interest of officers, teachers and pensioners of the state government, an official release from the state government said, adding that the incumbent government has been fulfilling the various requests of the officers and teachers and the promises made to them despite the heavy fund crunch and debt burden left by the previous government.

Accordingly, the state government led by the chief minister has been increasing the DA to the state government employees/teachers whenever the union government announces an upward revision in the DA to its employees.