Notwithstanding the lukewarm response to the government directives to heads of departments and cooperative banks to park their funds in the treasury, the Finance Department is pulling out all the stops to raise funds to disburse salary and pension within the next five days.
The bank holiday on Tuesday and the regional holiday in the capital city on Wednesday have given a breather to the government to manage its finances to a considerable extent. Though the monthly salary and pension expenses have been pegged at around Rs.3,000 crore, the disbursal can be staggered over the whole week. Hence, the government will immediately need only about Rs.500 crore to meet such expenses on Thursday.
Issue of bill booksFinance Department sources told The Hindu here that the process of issuing new bill books to the departments would be completed only by Friday. Each department would have to secure new books by surrendering the books for 2013-14. Even after issuing the books, on presenting the salary bills, the treasury officials need clear it only within three days. Which means, the salary bills of employees need be honoured only by Saturday. The revenue trickle from various sources such as Central tax share, sales tax, and such others would come to the rescue of the government, and it would be able to run the show without much hiccups till then, the sources said.
However, the requests of government employees for surrendering their earned leave and provident fund advance are likely to be delayed. As per the system in vogue, such payments are made only after the 10th working day of every month. In the wake of the cash crunch, the government may place curbs on releasing funds for such expenses, and these may get delayed till the month-end. For, such requests are mostly furnished during April-May, and incur an expenditure of nearly Rs.2,000 crore.
AdvancesThe payment of house building advance to government employees is likely to be deferred. The requests on this score are estimated to be to the tune of Rs.50 crore to Rs.100 crore. Such payments are likely to be delayed till the financial health is completely regained.
At the same time, the government move to put the onus on the officials for the failure in routing funds from the commercial banks to the treasury has paved the way for resentment among them. The department heads are understood to have acted against a specific directive to deposit the subsidies, grants, and other funds in banks, and this is being pointed out as a lapse of the government in managing its finances.
