Pay package may land Maharashtra govt in red

“I do not think that we will face a financial crisis if we implement the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission. We have a good track record in so far as financial discipline is concerned. In the past too, we had implemented the recommendations of the Pay Commissions in a time bound period,” Additional Chief Secretary C Venkatchary told The Indian Express.

As per the procedure, the recommendations of the pay commission will be first examined by the Pay Equivalence Committee. The observations of this committee will be scrutinised by the Committee of Secretaries and the report will then be placed before the cabinet.

Again the observations of the cabinet as well as the Committee of Secretaries will be examined by a high-level Anomalies Committee and ultimately, the final decision will be taken by the cabinet, Venkatchary said.

“This whole exercise, which is in existence for a long time, will take a minimum of six months,” Venkatchary added.

When asked if the entire recommendations will be implemented in toto, Venkatchary said the formula for deciding the revised wage structure was chalked out by the Bhole Commission in 1978.

“As per the formula, the pay and dearness allowance and pension is on par with that paid to the central government employees. For rest of the recommendations, like House Rent Allowance or reduction in the number of casual leave, either the cabinet or the Anomalies Committee will have to take a decision,” he said.

Replying to a question, Venkatchary said, as per rough estimates, the minimum hike will be about Rs 850 for each employee.

Venkatchary said Chief Minister Manohar Joshi has already made his stand clear before the Planning Commission as well as Inter State Council about the recommendations of the pay commission and the policy of his government thereby. “He has already asked for more share from central taxes collected from Maharashtra,” Venkatchary added.

The claims of Venkatchary have however been disputed by senior Mantralaya officials.

“No doubt the State government will have to implement the recommendations at any cost, but in that event it will have resort to drastic cut in planned and non-planned expenditure. Secondly, the resource mobilisation of the alliance government is very poor,” a senior official said.

Elaborating his contention, the official said last year, in view of the poor financial situation, the alliance government had to draw overdraft. Last year, it had to pay Rs 750 crore for the Krishna Valley Development Corporation and Rs 699 crore to the Maharashtra State Electricity Board to tackle the financial crisis and at the end of the year, it had to impose a 15 per cent cut on the planned expenditure to garner Rs 650 crore to carry out day to day expenditure.

In order to raise resources now, the alliance government has set higher target for Sales Tax and Excise, the main revenue generating departments. While the sales tax target has been set at Rs 1,400 crore, there is a proposal to auction country as well as foreign liquor licences to garner additional Rs 400 crore, besides the excise duty of Rs 1,300 crore.