After a week-long delay, Punjab releases salaries of employees

The employees’ organisation had Wednesday morning threatened to go on a strike if there was a further delay.

The State Cabinet had cleared the proposal to absorb such employees on Monday, which would cost the state exchequer an extra Rs 400 crore. The government had cleared the salary bill of Class C and D employees Tuesday considering that their salaries are lower than those of Class A and Class B employees. The IAS and PCS officers got their salaries only on Wednesday.

This was the first time after taking over the reins of the state in March that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was not able to pay salaries on time. The government usually pays salaries for the previous month on the first day of the next one.

According to the current fiscal budget, the state’s annual salary bill is pegged at over Rs 2,500 crore every month. Officials aware of the matter said freebies are bleeding the exchequer and the government is facing a crunch as the Centre stopped the GST compensation after June 30. In the last fiscal year, Punjab got Rs 16,000 crore as GST compensation from the Centre.

This fiscal, the State Government has received only Rs 4,000 crore as compensation for the first quarter. The gap of Rs 12,000 crore will be huge to cover up, especially when the free power bill is being pegged at Rs 20,000 crore.

On Tuesday, a senior government functionary had told The Indian Express there was a delay in paying salaries to the employees as the government had invested Rs 1,000 crore in the market and was expecting a handsome return. He said they expected the employees would bear with the government as the investment meant dividends for the state exchequer. He had stated that they were trying to save every paisa for the state exchequer.

Salaries were delayed even during former chief minister Amarinder Singh and SAD-BJP regimes. When Amarinder Singh took over as thr CM, the state was in overdraft and its accounts were sealed by the RBI.