Three days into Sep, Punjab govt employees yet to get Aug salary
The Punjab government has a salary bill of nearly Rs 2,916 crore every month.
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The decrease in advances growth in October was mainly on account of dip in growth in personal loans and credit to the agriculture sector.Barring Class IV employees, the Punjab government has not paid salaries to Class I, II and III employees till September 3.
After the Lok Sabha elections, the Finance Department gave a presentation to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, highlighting the government would “not be able to pay salaries to its employees for August and if something concrete had not been done to get pending dues from the Centre, it would become difficult to pay salaries”.
A senior government officer said, “The salaries could not be credited due to a technical snag in the HRMS software, which credits employees’ salaries and pensions into their bank accounts.”
“There is no issue otherwise. We have funds. It’s just that we could not get the technical snag rectified. The first day of the month was Sunday. There has been a delay of just two days. By Wednesday, the salaries will be credited to the bank accounts of the employees,” the officer said.
Sukhchain Singh Khaira, an office bearer of the Punjab Government Employees’s Association, told The Indian Express, “We have not received salaries till Tuesday. Whenever there is a shortage of funds, they make technical snag an excuse. We are waiting. The CM was warned about the shortage of funds,” he said.
“If there was a technical snag, then how come Class IV employees were disbursed salaries,” Khaira said.
An official said, “Class IV employees have been given salaries because they earn paltry money, making it difficult to run their house without money.”
The Punjab government has a salary bill of nearly Rs 2,916 crore every month. In the budget, the government has set aside Rs 35,167 crore for salaries alone. The government pays pensions and retrial benefits of Rs 19,800 crore.
The government is fund-crunched and its subsidy bill has crossed Rs 24,000 crore in the current fiscal. After the Finance Department’s presentation, the government sharpened efforts to get due payments from the Centre. However, it is yet to get its pending Rural Development Fund (RDF) to the tune of Rs 6,767 crore. It is yet to get money under the National Health Mission and special assistance.
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