KOCHI: The nearly 28,000 employees of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) were in for a pleasant surprise when the financially struggling state public-sector undertaking (PSU) disbursed their April salaries “on the last working day of the month” — for the first time in nearly eight years.
This is a welcome change from the usual practice of the corporation delaying salary disbursement, at times even crediting the previous month’s salary in instalments. In fact, for the past two months, Transport Minister K B Ganesh Kumar has been keeping his promise of crediting the full salary in the first day of the new month.
While detractors point out that this is being done by availing a Rs 100-crore overdraft at 10.8 per cent interest from the State Bank of India, the KSRTC management claims they can now afford to do so — thanks to the monthly government grant of Rs 50 crore and increased revenue collection.“There was a time when staff salaries were disbursed on the last working day of the month. But for the last many years, wages were delayed due to financial constraints. Employees were credited the April salary on the last day of the month. This has happened after a gap of nearly eight years. The minister had promised to disburse the salary on the first day of the new month. Since May 1 was a holiday, the salary for the month of April was paid in advance, on April 30 itself,” a top KSRTC official said.
“The situation has changed for the better since March. We received two salary credits in April. This is also the ninth consecutive month that the entire salary has been disbursed in a single instalment,” the official said.
While staff received the full February salary on March 4, the corporation disbursed the entire March salary on April 1, fulfilling the promise made by the minister. They received the April salary on April 30 itself.
The corporation has also effected a change in the method of depositing its collection. “Earlier, the depots used to deposit daily collections in the SBI account at 11 am the next day. Now the same is done twice — at 3 pm (the collection till noon) and 11 am the next day. This goes towards the overdraft account and helps with repaying the amount. We are able to repay the overdraft by the 20th of every month,” the official added.
KSRTC roped in a consortium of lenders, led by Kerala Bank, to refinance its Rs 625-crore Kerala Transport Development Finance Corporation Ltd (KTDFC) loan, which has led to monthly savings on interest, amounting to crores. This has also helped it service the overdraft facility.