Revised pay scale arrears: no clarity yet on mode of payment

As the federal government prepares to credit score the revised wage into the accounts of workers of completely different classes 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 final yr.

There is uncertainty over the definition of money and financial advantages introduced by the Cabinet on Tuesday as half of the implementation of revised pay scales. The authorities has introduced after the Cabinet assembly on Tuesday that new pay scales will grow to be operational with the wage of June, payable in July for 9.21 lakh workers, together with these contracted and outsourced, and pensioners. The notional profit of the revised pay scales shall be carried out from July 1, 2018 and financial profit from April 1 final yr. The money profit of the revised scales shall be efficient from April 1 this yr.

There is clarity on the payment of arrears of the revised scales to pensioners with impact from April 1 final fiscal as the federal government mentioned they might be paid in 36 instalments. But the identical is just not the case with the salaries/wages of the present workers. Employees are of the view that the arrears due for the month of June shall be paid together with the wage in July and the federal government may go for depositing the arrears for April and May within the accounts of the workers in the end.

“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 consultant of workers union puzzled. Given the uncertainty prevailing on the difficulty, workers are anxiously awaiting orders over the implementation of the brand new scales with the hope that clarity will emerge on the payment of arrears, each of the present fiscal in addition to 12 months of the final fiscal.

Additional expenditure

The authorities is prone to incur near ₹ 1,000 crore extra expenditure each month on account of revised pay scales introduced for greater than 9 lakh workers and pensioners together with the contract and outsourcing workers. Though the PRC headed by retired bureaucrat C.R. Biswal introduced fitment hike of 7.5 per cent amounting to extra expenditure of round ₹ 2,300 crore a yr, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao took the initiative to reinforce the hike to 30 per cent and thereby incur an enormous expenditure on the State exchequer.

The authorities reported expenditure of ₹ 3,045.38 crore in April for payment of salaries to workers at completely different ranges and pensions to the retired workers. According to the unaudited provisional figures of the month-to-month key indicators out there within the Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s web site, the State authorities reported expenditure of ₹ 2018.36 crore for payment of salaries and one other ₹ 1,027.02 crore for pensions throughout April. The extra outgo from the exchequer because of the implementation of the revised pay scales is of the order of ₹ 12,000 crore a yr, based on senior Finance division officers. The division is busy finalising the modalities for releasing the orders on the actuals because of workers and mode of payment of arrears because of them.