Salaries of only those employed under erstwhile South body are up to date; civic body needs ₹752.53 crore to maintain parity till June
Salaries of only those employed under erstwhile South body are up to date; civic body needs ₹752.53 crore to maintain parity till June
Over a month after the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) was constituted, the backlog in payment of salaries to its employees continues with the civic body struggling to close the gap.
According to documents accessed by The Hindu, the civic body currently requires ₹752.53 crore to pay salaries and pensions to its employees (Group A to D) till the month of June in order to maintain parity among all the workers.
Post the merger of the three erstwhile municipal corporations, salary payments to employees working under the erstwhile North and East corporations have been pending for one and three months, respectively, while those under the erstwhile South corporation have their salaries up to date.
The documents state that the MCD requires ₹774.83 crore per month to pay salaries and pensions to its employees. According to a senior MCD official, the civic body’s internal revenue is insufficient to pay this amount despite a large chunk of the money being diverted to pay salaries.
Temporary relief
The official said while the salary gap “may have reduced” compared to the situation prior to the merger, the relief is momentary.
“Soon, salaries for the month of July will have to be paid and it cannot be done solely based on our sources of internal revenue. The salaries that were released in recent months were paid through a mix of some funds received from the Delhi government and our internal revenue. It may seem that a lump sum payment can close the salary gap, but the larger question is how will we manage to pay the required amount every month, given our financial situation,” said the senior MCD official.
Sanitation workers’ woes
A break down of expenses mentioned in the accessed documents highlights that the largest chunk of salary expenses goes towards paying sanitation workers and other Group D employees, followed by Group B employees such as teachers. For instance, a total of ₹71 crore was paid in June towards the salaries of sanitation workers (Group D) employed under the erstwhile South corporation; ₹92.75 crore was spent on salaries of sanitation workers under the erstwhile North corporation in May and ₹.63.2 crore was paid to sanitation workers under the erstwhile East corporation.
“Currently, we are waiting for our share of transfer duty charges that is collected by the Delhi government; we have received slightly over ₹180 crore for the month of April. We are also awaiting the second and third installments of funds from the Delhi government, which includes a basic tax assignment of around ₹1,000 crore. When received, we [MCD] will have to survive on it till December, after which the fourth installment should come through,” said the senior MCD official.
