Kerala financial crunch: Salary distribution from March 4, but govt brings in 50k cap on withdrawals
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government started crediting the salary of its employees to their bank accounts on Monday. Finance Minister KN Balagopal said employees can withdraw only up to Rs 50,000 a day due to some technical issues.
The disbursal would be completed in three days, the minister said. In a rare development, a majority of employees did not get their salary on the first of this month.
Employees who did not receive their salary were those who had opted for auto transfer of the salary payment from the salary account with the treasury to their bank account. Those who directly withdrew salary from their treasury account were not affected.
It is learnt that the phased transfer of amount from the treasury to bank accounts is to avoid the treasury going overdraft. Recently, the centre had sanctioned Rs 4122 crore as tax devolution and IGST settlement. The treasury was running on an overdraft of Rs 3600 crore and it was adjusted from the central transfer.
The government is making efforts to mobilise funds for the routine expenditure, including salary payments. The monthly salary and pension payment are roughly Rs 3300 crore and Rs 2000 crore respectively.
The Finance Secretary on 1 March asked PSUs, grant-in-aid institutions and other institutions coming under the state government to strictly deposit their profits and own funds in treasury only.
It was a reminder of an earlier circular in this regard. It is learnt that several institutions made deposits in the first two days. This includes a Rs 500 crore deposit by the Beverages Corporation and Rs 100 crore deposit by the Government Secretariat Staff Cooperative Society.