Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, May 26: On account of lockdown, businesses all over the country had come to a standstill, which resulted in revenues of state governments drying up.

Karnataka too is reeling under financial crunch. It is waiting for the GST share from the central government. Now it is surviving solely on the excise income. The government is finding it hard to pay salary to its employees, and the monthly salary bill alone works to Rs 6,000 crore. Discussions are currently on within the government circles about the desirability of pruning down salary of employees by 30 percent.

The proposal to cut employees salary was before the government long back, but the chief minster had decided to freeze only the dearness allowance increase and earned leave encashment. Even when Kerala decided to cut 30 percent of pay of its employees, Yediyurappa did not fall in line with that decision.

The total salary bill of the government may be around Rs 80,000 crore annually including university and aided school employees. If the 30 percent cut if affected, it will bring down financial burden of the government by Rs 21,000 crore. As dearness allowance and earned leave encashment have been frozen, the government can save around Rs 30,000 crore. There is a notion that Yediyurappa, who is under pressure from a lobby of government officers, has not yet agreed to cut pay of government staff.

The government employees in general are opposed to the salary cut proposal. They feel that they have already given their contribution of one day salary worth Rs 250 crore towards fighting coronavirus and they cannot be expected to sacrifice more. Many feel that Yediyurappa, taking cue form Pinarayi Vijayan, should simply go ahead and affect salary cut without bending under any pressure.