Many state government employees in Kerala have not received their salaries, with the government attributing the delay to technical issues, while employee organizations associated with opposition parties claim it’s due to a shortage of funds. The affected employees are those who opted for automatic transfer of salary payments from their treasury accounts to their bank accounts, while those who directly withdrew their salaries from the treasury were unaffected. Some employee organization leaders allege that the government intentionally halted the auto-transfer process due to fund shortages.
A government source stated that the “technical issue” causing the delay is expected to be resolved by Monday, with efforts underway to gather funds for routine expenditures, including salary payments. The monthly salary and pension payments amount to approximately Rs 3,300 crore and Rs 2,000 crore, respectively. To bolster funds, the finance secretary has urged public sector undertakings (PSUs), grant-in-aid institutions, and other state government-affiliated bodies to deposit their profits and own funds directly into the treasury, reinforcing a previous circular on the matter. Several institutions have already made significant deposits, such as the Beverages Corporation’s Rs 500 crore deposit and the Government Secretariat Staff Cooperative Society’s Rs 100 crore deposit.
In a bid to attract deposits and augment funds, the government is offering a higher flat interest rate of up to 8.5% for deposits exceeding Rs 5 crore made by PSUs and other institutions between March 1 and 25, 2024. This initiative aims to encourage institutions to contribute to the state’s financial stability while providing them with an attractive interest rate on their deposits.
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