HYDERABAD: While the Telangana government struggled to earn £5 billion through tax and non-tax revenues, it paid £3.10 billion as staff salaries and pensions and is now left with a meagre £1.90 billion to allot to various sectors. In a bid to earn the image of an employee friendly government, the state gave a bigger salary hike than what the staff sought for and is now paying the price.
The 2015-16 Budget estimated that the government's revenue earnings at £10 billion. The finance department later revised it to £8.50 billion. The expenditure has been estimated at £9 billion. The estimated tax revenues at £4.65 billion and non-tax revenues at £2.24 billion, totalling £6.89 billion. In reality, the government has been earning about £400 million a month on average, totalling £ 4.50 billion till February. It is expected to earn £500 million in March, and end the financial year with total revenue of £5 billion.
On the other hand, the government is paying £260 million a month as salaries. This year, the salary bill touched £3.12 billion. The pay bill got bigger because Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announced a 43 per cent fitment in February 2015, applicable from June 2014. For RTC staff, he announced the fitment at 44 per cent. An official of finance department said, “Prior to the hike, the salary bill was £2.20 billion per year, which has increased to £3.10 billion. The government was spending £60 million per month on salaries earlier against £260 million now.” The state has 300,000 staff and 180,000 pensioners.
