NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a 5 per cent hike in Dearness Allowance (DA) for central government employees and pensioners.The allowance has now been raised to 17 per cent from 12 per cent earlier.The Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the 5 per cent additional DA/DR (dearness relief) over the existing rate of 12 per cent of the basic pay/pension due in July, 2019, the government said.The move will benefit 50 lakh central government employees and 65 lakh central government pensioners, said Union minister Prakash Javadekar ."This is the highest ever 5 percentage points increase in DA in one go by the central government," he said adding that it will bring cheer among the government employees ahead of Diwali.This allowance will be paid from July 2019 and the DA hike to cost exchequer Rs 16,000 crore, Javadekar further stated.The increase is in accordance with the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission.Dear Allowance or Dearness Relief is paid to central government employees and pensioners to adjust the cost of living and to protect their basic pay or pension from erosion in the real value. DA/DR is revised twice a year, i.e from January 1 and July 1.The minister also said that the Cabinet has decided to relax mandatory requirement of Aadhaar seeding for release of benefits under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) till November 30, 2019.He said that over 7 crore farmers have already benefited under the PM-Kisan scheme, under which Rs 6,000 is being provided to each farmer in three equal instalments.