Compare DA To Bank Employees AND Central Government Employees

DEARNESS ALLOWANCE PAID TO CENTRAL GOVERNMENT STAFF AND BANK STAFF – A COMPARISON

This is the history of Dearness paid to Central Government Staff and Bank Staff, since 01-11-2007 (Date of 9th BPS).

(D. A. in %)

S No	As On	Central Govt. Staff	Bank Staff	Remarks
1	01-11-2007	9.00	7.20
2	01-11-2008	16.00	17.40
3	01-11-2009	27.00	31.95
4	01-11-2010	45.00	46.20
5	01-11-2011	58.00	60.15
6	01-11-2012	72.00	76.50
7	30-06-2013	80.00	84.15
8	01-08-2013	90.00	88.95	D.A. for bank staff has started declining at this point, in comparison

1. As can be seen from the above statistics, D.A. % of bank staff has always been higher than the D.A. % of central government staff from November, 2008 onwards and until 30-06-2013 this trend continued.
2. As on 01-11-2007, some residual D.A. was left for the bank staff, as the entire D.A. was not merged with their Basic Pay.
3. Whereas in case of Central Government staff, their entire D.A. got merged with their Basic Pay from 01-01-2006 onwards.
4. Since central government staff have Grade Pay, in addition to Basic Pay, for all levels and cadres/grades, their Basic Pay and Grade Pay put together is much higher than the Basic Pay of the bank staff in the comparable rank and grade. 
5. It may please be remembered that even the Transport Allowance paid to central government staff is reckoned for computing their D.A. 
6. Thus, for central government staff, the aggregate of Basic Pay, Grade Pay and Transport Allowance is counted for computing D.A.
7. But in case of bank staff, only their Basic Pay (which is pretty lower than the aggregate of these 3 referred in Point No.6) is taken for calculating D.A.
8. For central government staff, the D.A. for each half-year is calculated basing on the average AICPI (Base 2001=100) for the 12 months preceding the half year concerned. To elaborate further, for D.A. as on 01-07-2013, the average AICIPI (Base 2001=100) for 12 months ended 30-06-2013 is considered.
9. Dearness Allowance for the central government staff is calculated by using the following formula.

Dearness Allowance = (Average of AICPIN for the past 12 months – 115.76)*100/115.76 (ignoring fractions) and inflation neutralization at 100% at all levels.

10. In case of bank staff, their D.A. for a particular quarter is calculated basing on the average of AICPI (Base 1960=100) for the 3 month period preceding the current cycle of D.A. To explain further, D.A. from 01-08-2013 is arrived at, by taking the average of AICPI for the months of April, May and June, 2013.
11. Only major difference is, D.A. paid to bank staff is revised at quarterly intervals and for central government staff, D.A. is revised at half-yearly intervals.
12. Since our Basic Pay is far below the aggregate of Basic Pay, Grade Pay and Transport Allowance of Central Government staff, we stand to lose heavily, in comparison, if we look at the gross emoluments per month.
13. Another area where we lose heavily is the HRA. At present, our HRA percentage is a cruel joke (Maximum: 8.5%), as compared to the HRA of central government staff (Max: 30%).
14. One may be tempted to point out that we are paid reasonable rents for the leased accommodation provided by the bank. Here also, I wish to clarify the following points.

1. Clerks and Sub-staff don't get leased accommodation.
2. In case of central government employees, regardless of their grade, each one is provided government quarters (Railways/BSNL/CPWD Quarters), subject to availability, in most of the cities/towns throughout the country.
3. Bank staff are posted to remote corners and very far off places by their managements. So, to mitigate their hardships, the banks are duty bound to provide some reasonable accommodation to their staff. (In this case also, the rents paid by many of the banks are not at all in tune with the market rates and bank officers are forced to shell out substantial amount from their pocket every month).
4. Bank staff are subjected to more number of transfers than their counterparts in the government service, during their entire career.

15. We must also remember that the central government staff enjoy stagnation-free running scale of pay, throughout their career.  Bank staff reach their stagnation too early in their life – many of them before they attain 40 years of age.  This is a great injustice to the bank staff, considering the fact that as one gains more knowledge, skills and experience as one moves forward in the organisation, his salary does not change and he gets stuck at a position for decades.
16. Pension for the central government staff gets automatically revised upwards, whenever there is a wage revision for them.  This facility remains a distant dream for bankers.

Date: 05-08-2013                                                                                                        BY Subramanian