AAP govt looks to rationalise expenses: on chopping block, 13th month salary of cops, Vidhan Sabha staff

Submitting a status report to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) about the proposal of rationalisation, the finance department has said that information regarding expenditure on CM security was not provided by the department concerned.

However, Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa had recently claimed that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has 122 security guards. In February, the Punjab Police had also assigned 40 personnel to the CM’s wife, Dr Gurpreet Kaur, for her visits to various districts.
Punjab has about 2,500 personnel who are assigned VIP duty as guards. They do not get weekly offs and are instead given 13 salaries in a year. It is now being proposed that they should be given a weekly off and only 12 months’ salary.

The finance department has pointed out that as police officials get 13 months’ salary, this was leading to an expenditure of Rs 462 crore (up to the level of inspector). Also, 13 months’ salary was being given to Vidhan Sabha personnel, which resulted in a financial burden of Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 2.5 crore.

The finance department has also prepared a list of financial obligations before the government. It has to deal with Pay Commission arrears to the tune of Rs 12,844 crore from January 1, 2016, to June 30, 2021. Dearness allowance instalments to the tune of Rs 2,600 crore are also pending, the department has pointed out.

A burden of Rs 650 crore to Rs 700 crore for the DA arrear period and an increase of medical allowance from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 per month would mean an annual financial burden of Rs 360 crore, as per the finance department. An arrear of leave encashment worth Rs 345 crore is also pending.

The department has set up a tax intelligence unit (TIU) and tax experts are also being hired for revenue mop-up.
Former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh had also got a plan chalked out for rationalisation of expenditure. The finance department then had suggested doing away with the power subsidy, which was Rs 7,000 crore per year at the time. Now, the subsidy has crossed the Rs 20,000 crore mark and the government will have to take concrete steps to rationalise it.

The previous government was also asked to cut down on the salaries of police personnel by one month and to give them weekly offs instead. Several other measures, including the cutting down on mobile allowances for employees and non-practising allowance of doctors and veterinarians, had been put forward. However, the government was only able to cut down on mobile phone allowance.
The incumbent government will also be faced with a funds crunch, especially in view of increasing power subsidies and the GST compensation era coming to an end. The Centre too appears to be shying away from paying rural development fee (RDF) on procurement of agricultural produce. This would also cause problems for the state government.