The Puducherry State Government Employees Central Federation has urged the Lieutenant Governor and Chief Minister to address the financial crisis with urgency.
P. Lakshumanaswami, general secretary, Pondicherry State Government Central Federation, said the Union Territory’s loan had increased from ₹2,170 crore in 2007 to ₹8,480 crore in 2017 after a separate account was opened for the Union Territory in 2007.
While the loan from the Centre stood at ₹690 crore, debt from Government Employees Provident Fund and Public Provident Fund was ₹580 crore and ₹750 crore respectively.
Every year, the RBI would take ₹1,200 crore from Puducherry’s tax revenue. “With the implementation of the GST, the Union Territory was losing ₹40 crore tax revenue every month, according to the Puducherry Chief Minister. If the GST is implemented for petrol and diesel in future, the tax revenue will come down by ₹300 crore,” he said. The government had set a revenue target of ₹2,600 crore for 2017-18. Given the circumstances, it would be difficult for the administration to achieve the target.
Stating that this would have an adverse impact on the welfare schemes, he added that the infrastructure work of the public works department and disbursal of salaries, pension and other benefits to about 5,000 workers in municipality, panchayat and cooperative sectors had been affected. “The government is unable to pay the dearness allowance (DA) and house rent allowance (HRA) and provident fund for the government employees. Even the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations have not been implemented. The PWD is yet to pay eight months salary for the 1,300 daily wage labourers,” Mr. Lakshumanaswami said.
The federation demanded that the government should take action against defaulting government officials and seek ₹650 crore for pension from the Centre.
