BJP bares chinks in State fiscal armour

BJP State Chief Spokesperson and Media In-Charge NV Subash said the Chief Secretary’s remarks validate the party’s repeated concerns about reckless financial management. “For years, governments indulged in pay hikes without scientific reasoning, merely to appease unions and secure votes. Today, the consequences are undeniable,” Subash asserted.

Subhash on Thursday said that Chief Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao has admitted that the state’s salary and pension expenditure has spiralled out of control. Addressing deliberations linked to the 16th Finance Commission,” Rao disclosed that the monthly outgo has surged from approximately Rs 1,500 crore in 2014 to nearly Rs 6,000 crore in 2026, a fourfold increase in just a decade.”

This admission proves what the BJP has been saying all along. Particularly, the BJP, which has long warned of fiscal indiscipline.

He said that the Chief Secretary highlighted that frequent pay revisions across departments and public sector undertakings have inflated fixed expenditures. He cited startling figures: Class IV employees in certain power utilities earning close to Rs 2 lakh per month, chief engineers drawing up to Rs 7 lakh, and even municipal drivers and sanitation staff crossing the Rs 1 lakh mark. Rao warned that such unchecked expansion has placed unsustainable pressure on the state exchequer.

Subash, while clarifying that the BJP supports fair compensation for employees, stressed that remuneration must be aligned with fiscal sustainability.

He accused successive governments of prioritising political expediency over economic prudence, adding that the unchecked appointment of advisors and rehabilitation of retired bureaucrats has compounded the crisis.