Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Government has sanctioned surrender of earned leave for its employees during the financial year 2022-23. But, there is a big catch.

According to the order issued in this regard, the leave surrender amount of the employees who apply for it will be credited to their Provident fund (PF) account after March 20 this year. However, this amount can be withdrawn from the PF account only after four years.

Employees point out that these riders are a big blow for them. They have to not only pay income tax for the leave surrender amount but also cannot utilize it during the term of the present government.

All government employees earn a day’s leave when they work for 11 days. Each year, 30 days of the total leave they earned could be surrendered and encashed. In other words, employees can gain up to a month’s salary through leave surrender. However, teachers are not eligible for this benefit.

The state government began freezing leave surrender during the term of the first Pinarayi Vijayan ministry in view of the COVID-19 crisis. However, even though the government allowed leave surrender this year after persistent demand from employees, it decided to deny withdrawal of the amount considering the severe financial crisis.

Kerala had earlier frozen the surrender of earned leave for the previous financial year, 2021-22. In the latest order, the government has made no mention of encashment of this amount. Government officials said that this means employees will no longer be able to surrender their earned leave for 2021-22.

Officials also said that the state government would have to transfer an amount of Rs 1,600 crore to PF accounts if the entire employees surrender their earned leave.