The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has a total outstanding loan of ₹12,100.34 crore as on May 31, 2022 and of this, ₹3,030.64 crore is the outstanding amount towards a consortium of banks, according to an additional affidavit filed by the KSRTC before the Kerala High Court.
The outstanding due to the government is ₹8,713.05 crore while an amount of ₹356.65 crore is due to the Kerala Transport Development Finance Corporation (KTDFC), it added.
The additional affidavit has been filed in response to a petition seeking to pay the KSRTC employees their salaries at the earliest. The corporation pointed out that it had pledged landed properties of 52 depots for availing ₹3,100 crore from a consortium of seven banks in 2018.
Daily instalments
It said that the corporation had to pay interest at the rate of 8.5% to 9.1% for the amount advanced from the banks. As per the understanding between the corporation and the consortium, the loan amount had to be repaid in equal daily instalments and for the purpose an escrow account had been opened and the daily collections of 57 units had to be deposited. The consortium of banks after adjusting an amount of ₹1,00,60,000 as daily remittance towards the loan, the balance amount would be transferred to the account of the corporation. Thus, the corporation has to make the remittance of ₹30.18 crore a month to the consortium of banks. The loan amount was utilised for clearing the previous loans from the banks and towards the loan of KTDFC. Most of the dues to the KTDFC were cleared by effecting payment from the consortium loans account and government repayment. A total of ₹356.65 crore was still outstanding to the KTDFC as on May 31, 2022.
For salary, pensions
The affidavit said that all loans sanctioned by the government were for the payment of salary and pensions. As the corporation could not repay the consortium loan due to the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020-21 and 2021-22, the government had paid ₹420 crore to the consortium of banks. Other than that, most of the loan amounts were sanctioned by the government for the payment of salary and pension.
The affidavit added that for the 2020-21 period, the government had sanctioned loans of ₹1,739.86 crore whereas the for the 2021-22 period, ₹2,037.51 crore had been sanctioned. In fact, the loan availed by the corporation from the government till 2008-2009 was waived off by the government and converted as the capital of the corporation.
The affidavit also pointed out that the corporation was in possession of 417.20 acres of land. It had eight shopping complexes and six are under construction.
