Minister for Finance K.N. Balagopal on Friday underlined the commitment of the government to safeguarding the entitlements of State government employees and pensioners.
Presenting the State Budget in the Assembly on Friday, he said the employees had understood the reasons for non-disbursement of arrears and cooperated with the government.
The difficult times were a thing of the past, he said, announcing that two instalments of pay revision arrears would be sanctioned during the current financial year and merged with the provident fund.
One instalment of dearness allowance (DA) / dearness relief (DR) will be allowed to government employees/pensioners. The enhanced rate of DA/DR will be allowed in April.
In further relief to the employees, the lock-in period of two instalments of DA arrears has been waived in the current financial year.
The last instalment of service pension revision arrears amounting to ₹600 crore will be disbursed this month.
The wages of daily wage and contract employees will be hiked by 5%.
A scheme to provide advance for building houses to State government employees will be revamped. A 2% interest subsidy will be given on loans taken from banks/financial institutions. An amount of ₹50 crore has been earmarked for the scheme.
A cooperative housing project envisaged for providing affordable housing to the middle class by constructing at least 1 lakh houses in rural and urban areas will benefit government employees too.
However, no solid proposals have been put forth on the assured pension scheme. Actions for implementing the scheme will be taken after evaluating the unified pension scheme announced by the Union government and similar pension schemes in other States, the Minister said.
Published – February 07, 2025 09:52 pm IST
