THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: KSRTC has started disbursing salaries in full on the first of the month, starting April 1, fulfilling the promise made by the Transport Minister K B Ganesh Kumar. On Tuesday, a sum of Rs 80 crore was distributed as salaries to employees.
This is the first time since December 2020 that KSRTC employees are receiving salaries in full on the first of the month. April is also the eighth consecutive month that KSRTC employees are receiving their salaries in a single instalment.
The money was arranged through a Rs 100-crore overdraft at 10.8% interest from SBI, which shall be repaid using the monthly government aid of Rs 50 crore and collection money. KSRTC aims to repay the overdraft sum by the 20th of every month. The government provides aid of Rs 50 crore in two instalments, on the 11th and 19th of every month.
Though Ganesh Kumar had announced that salaries would be distributed from the first of every month from January, it did not happen due to technical issues.
A major breakthrough came by way of repaying the debt of Rs 625 crore to KTDFC and replacing them with Kerala Bank in the bank consortium that provided loans to KSRTC. The government, acting as guarantor, facilitated the debt restructuring during a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.