HP govt to now disburse salaries to staff on Oct 1

Shimla: Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led Congress govt in Himachal Pradesh announced on Friday that govt employees will receive their Sept salaries on Oct 1, while pensioners will have to wait until Oct 9.The decision was made following a review of the cash flow in the state govt’s treasury by the finance department. The cash-strapped Himachal Pradesh govt had disbursed Aug month’s salary to its employees on Sept 5 and pension on Sept 10. The state govt disburses Rs 1,200 crore as monthly salary to its 2.42 lakh employees and Rs 800 crore as pension to 1.89 lakh retirees every month. A state govt spokesperson said the govt authorities were actively working to minimise the gap between receipts and expenditures to facilitate timely borrowing, thereby reducing the interest burden on state loans.The CM on Sept 4 clarified in Vidhan Sabha that the decision on releasing salaries for the month of Sept would be made on Sept 28 or 29 after reviewing the state’s financial condition, as many employees who have taken loans from the banks have equated monthly instalments (EMIs) scheduled for the first day of the month. He had then reasoned that this step was necessary to ensure judicial use of financial resources by mapping the expenditure with the receipts. The disbursement of salaries and pension on the first day of the month was burdening the state exchequer with Rs 3 crore per month on account of 7.50% interest to be paid on the advance loan taken from the market just for 5-6 days. The state govt receives Rs 520 crore revenue deficit grant from the central govt on the sixth day of the month and Rs 740 crore share in central taxes on the tenth day of every month.We also published the following articles recently