State staff unwilling to claim old wages for higher wages as per RPS 2022
VIJAYAWADA: A majority of employees of nearly 180 corporations have not claimed their wages as per revised scales under the 11th PRC for January, following a direction from the directorate of treasuries and accounts not to allow them to do so in AP.
The directorate of treasuries and accounts stated in a recent communication to the Andhra Pradesh Vaidya Vidhana Parishad that no suitable orders from the government had come so far to allow APVVP, regular employees, to draw wages as per revised scales of pay in the Year 2022. Hence, they should be permitted to draw wages as per the revised scales of pay of 2015 until the suitable instructions came from the state government, it said.
This means, the employees working in several corporations including APVVP, who draw their wages through Personal Deposit Account, are permitted to draw their wages under RPS 2015.
These employees, however, are unwilling to claim their wages as per RPS 2015 for January 2022, saying that they will not get the additional financial benefit ranging from Rs 4,000 to Rs 10,000 per head. This is as the state government revised HRA to 24 per cent of the basic, from the previous 16 per cent, and also restored city compensatory allowance (CAA) of Rs 1,000 mainly for those working as heads of department and those at the Secretariat.
The employees working in several corporations prepare monthly wage bills on their own and send them for clearance to the treasury. Once they get the clearance, they draw the wages on their own, unlike the regular government employees, in whose case the DDOs prepare their bills and send them to the treasury for clearance. Based on permission from DDOs, the employees get their wages through their bank accounts and CFMS.
With no wage coming for January and half of February is over, the employees are waiting for suitable orders from the state government to draw their wages for two months together, as per revised scales of pay of 2022; meaning a financial bonanza.
An official from a corporation said, “As we are getting revised HRA of 24 per cent and restoration of CCA of 1,000 in the revised pay scales of 2022, we have not claimed the wages for January as per the RPS of 2015. We are waiting for the payment based on the revised scales of 2022.”
Meanwhile, some bankers expressed their readiness to sanction personal loans to the employees having salary accounts with them, on condition that the money drawn is repaid through six EMIs.
On the other hand, the state government issued directions to ensure uploading of wage bills, especially of government teachers, by Feb. 21 in the concerned web portal unlike the regular practice of doing so by Feb. 25. This is to ensure that they get wages early and avoid their planned stir for better wages with a 27 per cent fitment and other benefits.
