THE CENTRE on Wednesday notified new wage rates for unskilled manual workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005 for the financial year 2024-2025, with Goa seeing the maximum hike of 10.56% over the current wage rate, and Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand recording the lowest raise of 3.04% each. The new wage rates, notified by the Ministry of Rural Development under sub-section (1) of section 6 of MGNREGA 2005, will become effective from April 1, 2024. As per the notification, the highest rate of NREGS wage (Rs 374 per day) has been fixed for Haryana, while the lowest (Rs 234 per day) has been fixed for Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland. As far as the state-wise increase over the current year (FY 2023-2024) is concerned, Goa has seen the maximum hike of 10.56% (Rs 34), taking the wage to Rs 356 per day for FY 2024-2025 against Rs 322 per day in the current fiscal. In fact, three other states — Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana — have also seen over 10% hike in the NREGS wages. In Karnataka, the new NREGS wage rate will be Rs 349 per day, 10.44% higher than the existing rate of Rs 316 per day. For Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the NREGS wage rates have been fixed at Rs 300 per day for 2024-2025, which is 10.29% higher as compared to Rs 272 per day during the current financial year. Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, which share the same wage rate under the NREGS, have seen almost 10% hike — Rs 243 per day from the existing Rs 221. Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, which share the same NREGA wage rate, have recorded the lowest hike at just 3.04% from existing Rs 230 to Rs 237 per day. Eight other states have seen a hike below 5% — Haryana, Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Kerala and Lakshadweep. Overall, the wages have seen an average increase of about 7% — from the existing all-India average wage rate of Rs 267.32 per day to Rs 285.47 per day for the financial year 2024-25. The Central government fixes state-wise wage rates for NREGS workers under sub-section (1) of section 6 of the MGNREG Act, 2005. The NREGS wage rates are fixed according to changes in the CPI-AL (Consumer Price Index- Agriculture Labor), which reflects the increase in the inflation in the rural areas. Last week, the ministry had sought the permission of the Election Commission for notifying the revised NREGA wages for the next financial year, which the poll panel granted.
