As the government prepares to credit the revised salary into the accounts of employees of different categories taking 30 per cent fitment hike into consideration, clarity is yet to emerge on the mode of payment of the arrears due from April 1 last year.
There is uncertainty over the definition of cash and monetary benefits announced by the Cabinet on Tuesday as part of the implementation of revised pay scales. The government has announced after the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that new pay scales will become operational with the salary of June, payable in July for 9.21 lakh employees, including those contracted and outsourced, and pensioners. The notional benefit of the revised pay scales will be implemented from July 1, 2018 and monetary benefit from April 1 last year. The cash benefit of the revised scales will be effective from April 1 this year.
There is clarity on the payment of arrears of the revised scales to pensioners with effect from April 1 last fiscal as the government said they would be paid in 36 instalments. But the same is not the case with the salaries/wages of the existing staff. Employees are of the view that the arrears due for the month of June will be paid along with the salary in July and the government could opt for depositing the arrears for April and May in the accounts of the staff in due course.
“There is, however, no clarity on how the arrears of the last financial year will be paid. Orders are awaited on whether they will be credited to the GPF accounts or whether the government opts for a separate head of account for payment of the arrears,” a representative of employees union wondered. Given the uncertainty prevailing on the issue, employees are anxiously awaiting orders over the implementation of the new scales with the hope that clarity will emerge on the payment of arrears, both of the current fiscal as well as 12 months of the last fiscal.
Additional expenditure
The government is likely to incur close to ₹ 1,000 crore additional expenditure every month on account of revised pay scales announced for more than nine lakh employees and pensioners including the contract and outsourcing staff. Though the PRC headed by retired bureaucrat C.R. Biswal announced fitment hike of 7.5 per cent amounting to additional expenditure of around ₹ 2,300 crore a year, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao took the initiative to enhance the hike to 30 per cent and thereby incur a huge expenditure on the State exchequer.
The government reported expenditure of ₹ 3,045.38 crore in April for payment of salaries to staff at different levels and pensions to the retired staff. According to the unaudited provisional figures of the monthly key indicators available in the Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s website, the State government reported expenditure of ₹ 2018.36 crore for payment of salaries and another ₹ 1,027.02 crore for pensions during April. The additional outgo from the exchequer due to the implementation of the revised pay scales is of the order of ₹ 12,000 crore a year, according to senior Finance department officials. The department is busy finalising the modalities for releasing the orders on the actuals due to employees and mode of payment of arrears due to them.
