HYDERABAD: The state government and the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) on Monday told the Telangana High Court that the corporation was unable to pay its employees on the first of every month from its own resources due to its critical financial position, and was depending on government assistance to pay staff.
The corporation’s accumulated losses are Rs 5,269.25 crore, and it’s annual revenue and expenditure are Rs 5,811 crore and Rs 4,882 crore respectively. Besides, just about Rs 7.5 crore is available in the corporation’s account, while Rs 239.68 crore is required to pay staff their salaries for September. Due to the ongoing strike, the corporation has incurred a loss of more than Rs 125 crore, it noted.
In this regard, the government and TSRTC management filed a counter affidavit before Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili dealing with petitions filed by the Telangana Jathiya Mazdoor Union and the TSRTC Bahujana Karmika Union, seeking a direction to the corporation to pay 49,190 employees (on strike since October 5) their salaries for September.
The counter-affidavit said the TSRTC was running 10,460 buses, of which 8,357 were owned by the RTC and 2,103 were hired. The corporation was unable to earn sufficient revenue to meet the wage liability, it added. Its outstanding liability is Rs 4,709 crore - Rs 1,660 crore towards credit cooperative society/provident fund/leave encashment and retiral benefits, and Rs 3,049 crore towards loans. The petitioners approached the court without availing the remedy under the Code on Wages 2019, it pointed out.
The TSRTC said it could not pay the striking employees in view of its precarious financial position.
On the other hand, petitioners' counsel Chikkudu Prabhakar said the corporation has contended that 75% of buses were being run in the state and revenue was being generated, hence the court must direct it to pay salaries from the revenue generated.