Hyderabad: The salary arrears of nearly 2 lakh employees and 2.40 lakh pensioners in Telangana, since the formation of the state in June 2014 to February 2015, due to implementation of the 10th Pay Revision Commission recommendations, has been pegged at Rs 5,000 crore.
It took almost seven months for the finance department to calculate the actual burden that the TS government has to bear for giving 43 per cent fitment (basic salary hike) towards payment of arrears for the nine-month period.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had announced 43 per pent fitment, the highest ever for employees, in February 2015. It was decided to implement the revised salaries from June 2014. With this, the government had owed employees arrears of nine months till February 2015.
At that time, the government had anticipated a burden of nearly Rs 2,000 crore for the arrears and had tried to issue bonds for employees due to financial constraints. But due to stiff opposition from employees, who demanded the arrears in cash, it backtracked and kept the issue pending.
Meanwhile, the finance department calculated the burden and realised that Rs 5,000 crore would be required to clear the arrears. The government is under tremendous pressure from employees’ unions for early payment of salary arrears.
