Skip to main content
Sarkari.tools61 calculators for India

Arrear DA / DA Arrear Calculator

Calculate Dearness Allowance (DA) arrear payments for Central & State Government Employees based on 7th Pay Commission.

Arrear DA / DA Arrear Calculator: how it works

When the Centre revises dearness allowance with retrospective effect, the difference for the months already passed is paid as arrears. Here is exactly how that figure is built up.

What DA arrears actually are

Dearness allowance is revised twice a year, from 1 January and 1 July, but the order announcing the revision usually arrives several months later. For those intervening months you were paid at the old rate, so the difference is owed to you. That difference, paid as a lump sum, is the DA arrear.

The calculation is simpler than most people expect, because DA is a flat percentage of basic pay. Nothing else in your pay slip enters the arithmetic — not HRA, not transport allowance, not your pay level.

The formula

Monthly arrear = Basic pay × (New DA% − Old DA%)

Basic pay = your 7th CPC basic, excluding all allowances
Total arrear = Monthly arrear × number of months

That is the whole calculation for the gross figure. Two adjustments then apply before the money reaches your account.

Worked example

Worked example · Level 6 employee, DA raised from 46% to 53% with effect from 1 January

Given

  • Basic pay: ₹35,400
  • Old DA: 46%
  • Revised DA: 53%
  • Arrear period: 6 months

Working

  1. 1DA increase = 53% − 46% = 7%
  2. 2Monthly arrear = 35,400 × 7% = ₹2,478
  3. 3Gross arrear = 2,478 × 6 = ₹14,868
  4. 4NPS deduction = 10% of 14,868 = ₹1,487

Net arrear credited: ₹13,381

Why HRA usually does not change

This is the single most common misunderstanding about DA arrears. HRA is a percentage of basic pay, not of DA — so a DA increase on its own leaves HRA untouched.

HRA does step up, but only when DA crosses specific thresholds. The rates move from 24/16/8 percent to 27/18/9 when DA passes 25 percent, and again to 30/20/10 when DA passes 50 percent. Unless a particular revision carries DA across one of those two lines, there is no HRA arrear at all.

Deductions from the arrear

  • NPS subscribers have 10% of the DA component deducted at source and credited to their Tier-I account. This is not a loss — it is your own retirement corpus.
  • GPF and Old Pension Scheme employees have no equivalent compulsory deduction from arrears.
  • Income tax applies in the year of receipt, which can push you into a higher slab.

Based on

  • 7th Central Pay Commission recommendations
  • Department of Expenditure orders on dearness allowance
  • Income Tax Act, Section 89(1) and Rule 21A

Frequently asked questions

Multiply your basic pay by the difference between the new and old DA percentages to get the monthly arrear, then multiply by the number of months in the arrear period. For example, a ₹35,400 basic with DA rising from 46% to 53% gives 35,400 × 7% = ₹2,478 per month.

More in Salary