State Government’s payment arrears mount day-by-day

Thiruvananthapuram: Even as the state commemorates its formation day tomorrow, the State Government owes over half a lakh crore of rupees to its poor and ordinary people, the government staff, and the contractors. While the Government has sanctioned money in the last fortnight for departments to meet urgent needs, this amount is very little considering the pending bills. It has imposed strict treasury curbs on passing the bills. The State Government needs one-fourth of the Rs 1.75 lakh crore that constitutes the State Budget to clear the arrears alone.

When will all these arrears be cleared?

• Rs 12000 crore for contractors
  A whopping sum of Rs 12000 crore needs to be paid to the contractors. Contractors in the Public Works Department (PWD) and the Water Resources Department have unpaid arrears for eight months, while those in the Water Authority Maintenance Department have been waiting for payment for 20 months now. For the Jal Jeevan Mission contractors, it's six months, and the Asset Development Fund of MLAs was unpaid for the past year. The arrears of contractors in the Local Self-Government Department (LSDG) have also been mounting. Concerning Kochi Corporation alone, there is a backlog of 40 months of payment. For KIIFB (Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board) projects, the arrears have been pending for four months.

• Rs 23,000 crore for staff and pensioners
  The 18% DA for government staff is pending as arrears. Now they are getting only 7%. The various arrears for staff have crossed Rs 23,000 crore. For clearing DA arrears alone, the Government needs Rs 18,000 crore. The pensioners need to get dearness relief arrears and two instalments of the revised pension. Nearly 75,000 pensioners died without getting this. A sum of Rs 2123.04 crore is pending to the UGC teachers in universities, and government/aided colleges as part of their 7th Pay Revision. The State and Central Governments have to provide Rs 1061.52 crore each towards this. The State has not yet received the Central share. Even if it gets it, the State will find it difficult to find its share.
• KSRTC needs Rs 190 crore
  The KSRTC (Kerala State Road Transport Corporation) needs Rs 50 crore more to pay the salary of its staff. It needs Rs 140 crore to pay the pension arrears for two months. The proposal to buy new buses using Rs 814 crore from KIIFB also did not work out due to the financial crisis.

• For Paddy and Supplyco Rs 1454 crore needed
  The State has to give Rs 789 crore in heads like state promotion bonus for paying the price of procured paddy and outturn ration. Supplyco owes Rs 665.72 to its suppliers.
• For LSG institutions Rs 1850 crore
  The Local Self-Government institutions are yet to get Rs 1850 crore, which is the second instalment of the government grant. This sum pertains to plan funds and the protection grant for road and other assets.
• Second installment of LIFE defaulted
  The State Government has failed to pay its share of the second instalment given to LIFE-PMAY Project beneficiaries. The aid for building houses is given in four instalments. A total of 1,60,000 is granted in the second instalment, of which the State Government gives 20,000, the Central Government 60,000, and the Corporation Rs 80,000. Six months after granting the first instalment, the beneficiaries are given only Rs 80,000. The Government has also not granted the money for the Ayyankali Job Guarantee Program to the LSG institutions.
• No money for treatment schemes as well
  The outstanding dues for the Karunya Arogya Suraksha Padhathi (KASP) scheme, the health care scheme that provides free treatment to the common man, for the last three years, is Rs 1031 crore. The amount pending to be paid to government hospitals alone is Rs 822 crore, while that for private hospitals is Rs 209 crore. It also incurred outstanding dues of Rs 148 crore towards treatments done through the Karunya Benevolent Fund (KBF).
• Three months’ welfare pension too pending
  The State Government disbursed the welfare pension for May and June just before Onam. However, it’s yet to provide the same for the last three months, from July to September. And, four months' payment will be outstanding as of tomorrow. It is hoped that the outstanding welfare pension for two months will be distributed in November.

Additional Rs 185.68 cr grant allotted to local bodies
Meanwhile, the Finance Department has allocated an additional fund of Rs 185.68 crore towards the General Purposes Grants-In-Aid that the State Government provides to local bodies to discharge their obligatory and executive functions. Accordingly, the panchayats will receive Rs 131.77 crore, block panchayats Rs 8.95 crore, district panchayats Rs 6.30 crore, municipalities Rs 22.63 crore and corporations Rs 16.03 crore.

Out of the Rs 2244 crore set aside for local bodies this year, a sum of Rs 1496 crore has already been allocated, Finance Minister K N Balagopal said.

Not many dues in the mid-day meal scheme though!
While a substantial amount of both the Central and State share concerning the School mid-day meal scheme would be usually pending, only the amount due for this month (October) remains to be paid by the State Government. The amount to settle the outstanding dues till September was allotted last week.

Meanwhile, only Rs 54.17 crore of the first instalment of Rs 170.56 crore to be provided by the Central Government towards the project implementation was received last month. The wages of mid-day meal cooks have not been paid for the last two months because of this.