Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Wednesday announced a Dearness Allowance (DA) hike of 4 per cent for government employees with retrospective effect from April 1.
The announcement will benefit 16 lakh government employees, teachers and pensioners.
The hike will cost the exchequer an additional expenditure of Rs 2,366.82 crore.
An official statement said that the Stalin-led DMK government lwas implementing promises given to teachers and government employees even though the state was under debt following the Covid-related dip in revenue earnings and financial crisis in the state that was passed on from the previous regime.
The government in the statement said that the DA hike would be at par with that of the Centre.