AP govt in a quandary over PRC

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh government is now caught in a piquant situation. The state is facing severe financial crunch but is under tremendous pressure to announce pay revision commission recommendations which should be on par with what the TS government has announced for its employees.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu sees a reason in the demand of the state government’s employees for pay revision but also cites the fact that state’s finances are in dire straits. He also refused to say yes or no to the pay hike demand from the employees. But the employee associations are confident that the government will agree for 43 per cent fitment and say that they would not mind even if the government takes a little more time to decide on the matter.

Meanwhile, Cabinet Sub-Committee appointed on implementing the 10th Pay Revision Commission recommendations is understood have arrived at a decision to recommend 35 per cent fitment to the government staff and a marginal increase in the HRA and other perks demanded by the employees associations.

This was arrived at following an extensive briefing from the finance ministry officials taking into consideration the existing financial constraints. According to a senior government official, the “State has started its journey with a deficit budget of Rs 16,000 crore and the poor revenue scenario and growing expenditure and other commitments may permit the government to give seven per cent over and above the 29 per cent recommended by the 10th PRC headed by senior IAS officer P K Agarwal.”

Speaking to The Hans India, the AP Secretariat Employees Association president Muralikrishna said that it was only a matter of time for the State government to announce the new scales. Even, “the Chief Minister had already assured us of a good hike”, he added.

When asked about the financial constraints, another employees’ association leader pointed out that “during N Chandrababu Naidu’s earlier stint, the state had gone for over draft facility on a daily basis. Now, it is not the case and so we hope that he would do justice to the employees.”

However, the briefing given to the sub-committee cautioned that 43 per cent fitment would cost the government about Rs 7000 crore annually. This is in addition to the growing revenue gap.

The sub-committee headed by the Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu is scheduled to meet on Tuesday to finalise its recommendations and submit its report to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, leaving the final decision to him. However, the issue of whether to hike the fitment would be announced only after discussing it in the next cabinet meeting.

In addition, the cabinet sub-committee is understood to have agreed to give a marginal increase in HRA and other perks demanded by the employees. Also, while the employees have been demanding the implementation of the PRC from July 2013, the committee had reportedly showed interest in implementing the same from the appointed day of the bifurcation of the state, but wanted to leave it to the discretion of the Chief Minister.

By: V R C Phaniharan