Salary revision ball in KCR’s court

The recommendations of the first Pay Revision Commission (PRC) in Telangana have come as a shocker to the five lakh state government employees and pensioners. The main suggestion the C R Biswal-headed PRC made was fixing a fitment of 7.5% on basic pay.

It also recommended the extension of the age of superannuation from the present 58 to 60 years, apart from several pro-employee suggestions. But as soon as the report was out, the employees exploded in anger, saying that they expected the fitment to be more than 63%. Now the ball is in Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s court.

The last PRC, headed by P K Agarwal, had recommended a 29% fitment when it submitted its report to the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh government just three days ahead of the bifurcation of the state on June 2. The KCR government had hiked it to 43%, which sent the employees into raptures.

The present commission, on the contrary, ignited passions as the recommended 7.5% fitment was the second lowest in the history of united AP, the first one being 5% in 1974. Another suggestion that riled the employees was scaling down HRA from 30%, 20%, 14.5% and 12% in four slabs to 24%, 17%, 13% and 11%, respectively.

There is no disputing the fact that 7.5% fitment is very low, while 63% is way too ambitious. But expecting KCR to revise the figure to something more acceptable begs the question as to why to have a commission at all if the political establishment is to take the final call. The commission’s argument was that the total salary and pension expenditure increased from Rs 16, 378 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 35, 282 crore in 2017-18.

Similarly the expenditure on major subsidies as a percentage of revenue has gone from 32.76% in 2016-17 to 52.4% in 2019-20. Coupled with the expenditure on salaries and establishment, it amounts to 89.86% of the total budget, leaving hardly any scope for taking up other developmental activities. This is something the CM would factor in while formulating a revised fitment policy.