Amid the lockdown in place over COVID-19 pandemic, the Telangana government announced major salary cuts for all government officials in the state for the month of April. This includes pensioners in the state. The state government stated the step needed to be taken since COVID-19 has adversely impacted Telangana’s economic situation.
The state government has announced that there will be 75% cut in the salaries of the Chief Minister, the ministers in the state cabinet, Members of Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly members, state corporation chairpersons and representatives of local bodies.
There also will be a 60% salary cut for bureaucrats and other such central services officers. All other categories of employees will face a 50% salary cut.
Class IV, outsourcing and contract employees will be facing a 10% salary cut. All categories of pensioners will be facing a 50% cut in pensions for the month of April. For Class IV retired employees, there will be a 10% cut.
There will be cut in salaries for all the public sector undertakings (PSU) and institutions that are receiving government grants, like the government employees and retirees.
The decisions were made at a high-level review meeting held on Monday at Pragathi Bhavan on the financial situation of the state.
At his press meet on Sunday, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had said that the state had suffered a revenue loss of Rs 12,000 crore since the efforts to fight the pandemic were initiated by the state with a 21-day lockdown.
The cut in salaries come at a time when the Chief Minister has promised farmers in the state to buy their paddy crop for the year. The state is also in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to avail a loan for the purpose.
The state has also deferred its decision to hike property taxes from April 1, 2020, until the situation in the state returns to a sense of normalcy. The state had also rolled back its decision to hike electricity tariffs by 10%.