THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Finance Department has made it mandatory for contractors to make 25 per cent of the earnest money deposit (EMD) amount as Treasury fixed deposit.
Finance Minister K M Mani said in a release here on Thursday also said that there was no basis in reports that the distribution of salary through bank accounts had affected the fund balance with the Treasury.
“The salary of only below 50,000 government employees were paid through treasury account while the rest were paid directly. The order to distribute salary either through banks or treasury as per the convenience of the employees was issued following complaints that field officers were not getting salary on time. But it was baseless to point out this as a reason for the current financial crisis,” the statement said.
Also, the Government has not given any directive to transfer the money from treasury to deposit in banks.
“A directive was issued that the actual fund of the government institutions and boards should be deposited in banks only if the interest is higher that for the treasury deposits. At present, only below 2 per cent of the government employees are opting to receive salary through banks and therefore it has hardly affected the fund balance with the treasury. Also, the treasury deposits are giving the interest as bank deposits,” it said.