The long wait of lakhs of central government employees and pensioners is now over. The government has finally given the official green signal to the formation of the 8th Pay Commission. This news is no less than good news, but at the same time, the government has also put a full stop in the Parliament on a big debate going on regarding DA (Dearness Allowance). For the last several months, there was a heated discussion on social media and in office canteens that the government can merge Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) with the basic salary. But now the situation has become completely clear. Milk became milk, water became water in Parliament. With the beginning of the winter session of Parliament, the biggest update on this issue came. MP Anand Bhadauria asked a direct question to the government whether the notification of the 8th Pay Commission has been issued and whether the government is going to merge DA with the basic pay? To this, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary replied and clarified that the 8th Pay Commission has been officially notified on 3rd November 2025. The command of the commission will be in the hands of Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai (Chairperson). Along with him, Professor Pulak Ghosh and Pankaj Jain will also be a part of this commission. The news of ‘DA merger’ was just a rumour. The biggest news for the employees is that at present the government has no intention of merging DA and DR with the basic salary. The Finance Ministry has clearly said that no such proposal is under consideration. This simply means that even after crossing the 50% mark, DA will not automatically be merged into the basic pay. It will continue to be available as a separate component. Many people were speculating that DA might stop increasing after 2026, but the government has given relief by saying that nothing like this will happen. Every six months, based on inflation data (AICPI-IW Index), your allowance will continue to increase as before. What will be the impact on your pocket? Now the question is, what difference will this make to your salary? See, if DA was added to the basic salary, the basic pay of the employees would have increased. And since HRA (House Rent Allowance), PF and Gratuity are calculated on the basic pay, all these would have automatically increased. But since the government has refused to ‘merger’, the basic salary structure will remain the same. However, the good thing is that DA is not going to stop, you will continue to get it at increased rates. Now all eyes are on the recommendations of the 8th Pay Commission to see what decision they give regarding fitment factor and minimum wage.