CHENNAI: The University of Madras may not be able to pay salaries of teachers and other officials at the end of this month as the Income Tax department has deducted Rs 12.5 crore from the frozen accounts of the institution, said the Joint Action Committee of University of Madras Professors and Officials Welfare Associations. They have planned to stage a one-day token hunger strike on Friday to get the attention of the government on the issue.
According to them, the number of accounts belonging to the university blocked by the I-T department has increased to more than 50 as the accounts of the head of the departments in State Bank of India have also been put on hold. “The university is even struggling to maintain day-to-day expenses. The hostels are also being run with difficulties with contribution from students and staff in the hope that accounts will become active soon.
While the temporary staff have not been paid salaries for three months now, the university will not be able to pay salaries to the professors and other officers as well,” said a member of the joint action committee. They urged the government to bear the expenses of salaries and pension being paid by the university.
According to them, the state government has reduced the funding that should be given to the university by a large amount citing audit objections. While the audit objection only amounts to 10-15% of the total funding, the state is reducing it by 70-75% pushing the university into a financial crisis, they added. When TNIE reached out, senior university officials said they couldn’t comment on the issue as they were focussing on resolving the issues.
The income tax department two weeks ago froze the accounts of the university citing that the institution has to pay Rs 424 crore as income tax for the years 2017-18 to 2021-22 as it has not received more than 50% funding from the government and hence can’t be considered as a government university.
Sources said that the university’s expenditure per month is Rs 20 crore, of which Rs 15-16 crore goes towards salaries and pensions. While the expenses of the university is around Rs 240 crore and revenue through fees and others is around Rs 100 crore, the state government has been providing the university only Rs 25-30 crore since 2015-16 per year citing audit objections as the reason.
For the three years, the state government has not released any funds to the university. The university is currently being headed by a four-member convenor committee with higher education secretary A Karthik as the chairman in absence of a vice-chancellor.