Wage, pension of TMC staff rise by almost 200% in 5 yrs

Thane: The annual wage and pension bill of the 11,000-plus employees of the Thane Municipal Corporation has risen sharply by close to 200 per cent in the last five years, according to the budget document presented by municipal commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal on Wednesday.
From Rs 173 crore spent towards the salary and pension of TMC staff in 2010-11, the expenditure is estimated to go up to Rs 503 crore by March 2016, the budget papers revealed.
Interestingly, the TMC’s income from its own sources such as octroi or local body tax, property tax, development charges among others has projected a modest 83 per cent growth in these six years -- from Rs 932 crore in 2010-11 to an estimated revenue of Rs 1,706 crore by the end of March 2016.
The budget figures point out that the salary and pension bill collectively consumed 18 per cent of the funds raised from its own tax revenue six years ago. However, with a series of recruitment drive and higher pay packets to the TMC staff, the employee wages will total up to 34 per cent of the own tax revenue by March 2015.
The increasing expenditure on maintaining a bloated bureaucracy has taken a hit on funds for capital expenditure and projects like upgrading city roads, street lights, drainage infrastructure, etc. could be the first casualty if the civic exchequer has to bear any new financial burden, officials said.
“The civic treasury would have to shell out a couple of crores of rupees annually towards pension funds for corporators. The civic income sources are limited and its growth rate is dismal whereas its committed expenses are soaring with each passing year. Under no circumstances can the TMC stop payment of salaries and pension of its staff and should there be a cash crunch situation the budget for development works will have to be cut,’’ said an official.
Jaiswal said he is working on initiating reforms in the TMC and the first task will be to focus on shifting to digitization of files and extensive computerization programme to be undertaken during 2015-16.
“We have allocated Rs 18 core for this administrative reform work. However, it will also include effective monitoring of the work and a performance appraisal of the staff will be a part of the reforms initiative,” he added.