Aizawl( Mizoram), June 13 : The state government has decided to defer a portion of the salary of a large number of employees for three months from June to ease the financial constraints caused by the coronavirus outbreak, an official said on Friday. While 15 per cent of gross salary for Group-A staff will be deferred, it will be 10 per cent for Group-B and five per cent for Group-C and D. The decision will not be applied to Group-B, C and D employees of police and health departments.
Employees whose gross monthly salary is Rs 40,000 or less will not be affected by the deferment, according to a government order. The opposition Congress termed the move as “unacceptable” and claimed that the government has enough money to fight COVID-19.
In an office memorandum issued on Thursday, the government said that payment of salaries will be deferred from June to August. Apart from the state’s employees, the deferment will be applied to All India Service officers, central officers on deputation to the state government, staff of public sector undertakings, institutions, societies and autonomous bodies, whose salaries are paid through grant-in-aids, it said.
The order said that the deferred salaries will be paid in instalments without interest once the financial condition of the state improves. Chief Minister Zoramthanga had earlier said that salary payment alone causes an outflow of about Rs 290 crore every month and this needs to be checked.
There are 41,777 regular employees under the state government. Of them, 6,112 are in Group-A, 14,363 in Group-B, 18,363 in Group-C and 2,939 employees are in Group-D, official sources said. Besides, there are thousands of contractual and muster roll employees in the state.
Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Dr Lallianchhunga said the state government received financial assistance amounting to Rs 34 crore from the Centre, over Rs 7 crore from public donation and it was yet to receive Rs 17.5 crore from 35 legislators, who have agreed to donate Rs 50 lakh each from their MLA funds to fight COVID-19. Deferring the salary of employees is not acceptable, he told a press conference on Friday.
He suggested that the government divert part of the funds allocated to the state’s flagship programme the Socio-Economic Development Policy (SEDP), Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) and the Parking House Support Scheme (PAHOSS), to fight Covid-19 pandemic. He said that the government allocated Rs 513 lakh for implementation of SEDP, Rs 200 lakh as state matching share for implementation of CSS and Rs 10 crore for PAHOSS.
(With PTI inputs)
