Four lakh government employees and pensioners in Himachal are keeping an eye on Himachal’s budget. On March 17, Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu will present this budget in the Assembly.
What the Chief Minister says in this budget for the outstanding arrears of the Pay Commission and dearness allowance will be important. Actually, arrears of about 10000 crores are yet to be given to the employees and pensioners.
In this, the arrear of pensioners is around Rs 5500 crore and the arrear of employees is around Rs 4500 crore.
The former Jairam government had given only one installment of arrears with a ceiling of Rs 50,000 after the implementation of the Pay Commission. Since then no payment has been made till date.
After coming to power, Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh has told the employees to wait for the arrears.
Talking about dearness allowance, seven percent DA is pending and its liability is becoming around 900 crores. Although dearness allowance is not a subject of the budget, but if not given, then this announcement can also be made through the budget.
Even if the arrears of the employees are not paid, then the Chief Minister can tell about the upcoming work plan in the budget.
Government employees are waiting for the time scale to be restored, but the Punjab government has not yet taken a decision on this.
Employees are now arguing that when the UGC scale can be given in Himachal without giving it in Punjab then why not the time scale? Even more complicated is the matter of anomalies in the Pay Commission.
The discrepancies that came after the implementation of the pay commission have not been resolved yet. These anomalies have further increased due to the extension of rider benefits to certain categories.
The Congress government after coming to power has not even addressed the issue of pay commission anomalies.
Although Congress has definitely promised to remove these anomalies in its manifesto. That’s why the budget will tell what the Chief Minister says about the discrepancies in the Pay Commission.
Half of State’s Budget Spent on Salary-Pension
Talking about the last budget, more than half of Himachal’s budget is being spent on salary of employees, pensioners and other grants.
How much has this liability increased after paying the Pay Commission, this will also be known from the new budget itself.
The increase in this expenditure means that the state government will have less money for capital expenditure.
Anyway, out of 52 thousand crores, only 25 percent of the budget was left for development works in the last budget.