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Patna, Oct. 12: The state cabinet today announced seven per cent hike in dearness allowance (DA) of the state government employees and pensioners with effect from July this year.
The government employees would now get 72 per cent of DA instead of 65 per cent.
The hike would be effective from July 1, 2012, said Vijoy Prakash, the principal secretary of planning and development department holding the additional charge of the cabinet co-ordination department.
The decision would put an additional burden of Rs 575.84 crore annually on the state exchequer, Prakash said. Rs 362.8 crore would be spent on paying DA to the serving employees, while Rs 213.04 crore would be spent on giving the allowance to the pensioners.
The cabinet had hiked the DA by seven per cent in April. Prior to that, the DA of the state government employees and the pensioners was 58 per cent.
Besides, the cabinet decided to exempt entertainment tax till March 2015 on the development, construction, expansion and modernisation of cinemas and multiplexes.
The tax exemption would be available for entrepreneurs making an investment of Rs 1 crore to Rs 3 crore over a period of two to five years.
The cabinet sanctioned Rs 100 crore to be spent in the current fiscal (2012-13) under the integrated dairy development project to promote dairy farming and rela- ted works, the principal secretary said.
It approved the commercial taxes department’s proposal to exempt newsprint from entry tax, which was being levied at the rate of four per cent on all types of papers, including newsprint.
Prakash said the cabinet also decided to reduce the entry tax from eight to four per cent on raw tobacco, used to make cigarettes.
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