Vijayawada: Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma has affirmed that there would be no deduction in the salaries of government employees following the implementation of 11 PRC. Addressing the media, he dismissed the fears of government employees about a reduction in their salaries, and said their gross salary will go up with the 11 PRC implementation.
“Nowhere has the government set aside the Ashutosh Mishra Committee recommendations on PRC. It is natural for the employees to entertain doubts and the government will continue discussions with them to resolve issues, if any,” he said.
The CS said AP’s revenue dropped to Rs 62,000 crore against the Rs 98,000 crore per annum the previous term due to the Covid-19 crisis. “The government is readying to face the third wave and the Omicron impact. The employees must be mindful of the fact that the state revenue has largely reduced. This is the time to balance between government schemes and the employees’ salaries. The government is already providing many benefits to the employees compared to the scene in other states,” he said.
Sharma recalled that already the government had allocated an interim relief of Rs 17,000 crore to the government employees. "The employees are aware that IR is not part of the payroll and the total wage should be taken into account. It is not right to make accusations against the government on the PRC issue as it is increasing gross salary and also offering an increase in pension and gratuity."
He said the government had taken into account the recommendations of the Central Pay Commission based on scientific studies. Life expectancy has largely increased and hence there is nothing wrong in increasing the retirement age to 62 years.
“The government has other commitments too. All the factors including the PRC, education, welfare, infrastructure etc., have to be taken into consideration in the state budget. Other states have cut welfare schemes during the Covid-19 crisis but the AP government continued with all such schemes. The state’s resources are limited,” he said.
Chief Secretary to revenue and services Shashi Bhushan said the implementation of the PRC would place an additional burden of R 10,247 crore on the government. The salary of every employee will increase massively and the increase of the retirement age will result in an additional benefit to them of Rs 24 lakh per employee for two years, he said.
Finance Secretary S.S. Rawat, adviser to government on employees welfare N. Chandrasekhar Reddy, revenue department EO Satyanarayana and information commissioner T. Vijay Kumar also addressed the media.
