Thiruvananthapuram: Parlous fiscal health of the Kerala Government may prevent it from clearing the arrears on salaries and pensions as well as monthly payment of myriad social security benefits.
Finance Department officials informed Finance Minister, K N Balagopal, that the government’s promise to pay the welfare pension every month cannot be honoured, in view of the financial crisis.
It has been decided to pay the pension as a lumpsum every three or four months.
The government has disbursed pension till the month of February while that for March, April, and May is in arrears. This may be paid next month or at the time of Onam.
The government has fixed Rs 1,600 as welfare pension every month.
The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) states that the finances have improved by a notch, but Finance Department sources claimed that the situation is such that the government is just about able to manage the day-to-day expenditures and that it has not improved to a level where it could pay the pending dues.
The government managed to improve the financial situation by cutting down on expenditures to the barest minimum, experts are of the opinion that any attempt to make financial gains by freezing the Rs 20,000 crore that the government has to pay its employees and pensioners is not a healthy practice.
Dues over Rs 4,000 cr
The government has to pay Rs 2,800 crore as arrears to service pensioners as a result of the revision of pension and Rs 1,400 crore as Dearness Allowance. Minister Balagopal had stated in the Assembly that two installments of these two categories of arrears would be disbursed in this financial year when the fiscal situation improves.
In addition to this, the government has to pay the arrears resulting from the revision of salary for government employees and leave surrender, and the salary revision for college teachers as per the UGC scale.
Government holds back varsity funds
The universities are facing a financial crunch after the government held back grant payable in the last quarter of the previous financial year.
The government has issued a circular stating that since the new financial year has begun, grants for the previous year cannot be paid. Owing to this, the universities are struggling to pay the salary and pension.
The government gives a monthly grant of Rs 5 crore to Rs 30 crore to the universities. Towards the end of the last financial year, the government had asked all the universities to transfer the funds lying with them to the treasury. However, the government is not returning the money to the universities that had acted on this directive.
