Bank Employees DA for November 2026–January 2027 Calculated at 31.33%: AIBEA Circular Explains Increase

What the 30 October AIBEA circular says

The All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) issued Circular Letter 30/19/2026/45 on 30 October 2026, setting out the Dearness Allowance (DA) calculation for the quarter November 2026 to January 2027 under the 12th Bipartite Settlement / Ninth Joint Note. It gives the rate as 31.33% of eligible pay, compared with 27.83% for August to October 2026. This is a 3.50-percentage-point movement in the rate, not a 3.50% rise in the employee’s entire gross or take-home salary.

The union’s calculation is supported by the underlying Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) published by the Labour Bureau. The underlying settlement formula is relevant to participating banks; the article does not treat an AIBEA circular as a separate payroll notification issued by the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA).

How the 31.33% rate is calculated

The AIBEA circular uses 154.36 − 123.03 = 31.33. Its previous-quarter CPI average was 150.86, producing a 27.83% rate. The three monthly figures above add up to 463.10; their arithmetic average is approximately 154.3667. The published circular uses 154.36 to two decimal places for the settlement calculation. Readers should follow the rounding/truncation convention used in applicable settlement and bank payroll instructions rather than independently rounding to 154.37.

What an employee’s DA increase does—and does not—mean

The rate is applied to the defined pay components, not every item on a salary slip. AIBEA’s tables expressly distinguish staff groups: for clerical and sub-staff employees they include applicable basic pay, special allowance and transport allowance, while the officer tables refer to basic pay, special allowance and learning allowance. Professional Qualification Pay and other elements have their own relevant entries. Personal entitlement depends on the actual pay stage and the applicable settlement or joint note.

The AIBEA examples for the revised quarter show a sub-staff basic pay point of ₹19,500, with published DA of ₹7,994.63 and a published DA increase of ₹893.11 on the table’s stated pay-component basis. For a clerical basic pay point of ₹24,050, the table shows DA of ₹9,797.91 and an increase of ₹1,094.56. Those tabulated totals include components beyond just basic pay; they are not interchangeable with multiplying 31.33% by basic pay alone.

Which employee groups should verify applicability?

• Serving employees under 12th BPS/Ninth Joint Note: The quoted 31.33% rate is calculated for this settlement; check your actual bank payroll communication and covered pay elements.
• Employees still governed by an older settlement: Do not substitute this percentage for the older DA structure. The bases and rates differ.
• Regional Rural Bank staff: Do not assume a PSB union table establishes an identical RRB entitlement or implementation date. Follow applicable RRB/sponsor-bank and service-rule communications.
• Retired bank staff: DA for serving employees and Dearness Relief (DR) for pensioners are not the same schedule. AIBEA’s attached tables say pensioner DR rates are unchanged in this particular publication; check the appropriate pensioner circular for your retirement cohort.

What remains to be confirmed

AIBEA’s circular and the Labour Bureau CPI information establish the published calculation. An independently inspected IBA circular for the November 2026 implementation was not available among the sources used for this article. This does not prove no such IBA document exists. Individual banks may use their own payroll implementation notices. No claim is made here about a particular bank’s credited arrears, net-salary increment, or exact payroll processing date.

For bank employees, the practical step is to match the settlement and pay components shown in their bank’s authoritative salary records with the cited union calculation, while keeping the separate IBA or bank implementation communication in view.

Sources and References

1. All India Bank Employees Association — AIBEA Circular Letter 19.45 on DA Increase from Nov. 2026. https://aibea.in/aibea-circular-letter-19-45-on-da-increase-from-nov-2026/
2. Labour Bureau, Government of India — Labour Bureau: September 2026 Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers. https://www.labourbureau.gov.in/en/