Guwahati: The Assam government's revenue generation has dropped due to the Coronavirus induced lockdown and the government is not certain if it can pay the salaries for the employees for the month of May and June.
It may be mentioned here that there are about 4.40 lakh government employees in the state followed by 1.5 lakh pensioners.
A highly places the source in the Assam government said that the state requires Rs 2800 crores every month for disbursing the salary of the employees only.
According to the budgetary for the current fiscal, the state needs Rs. 3500 crore for disbursing salary of the employees, pensions, and for repayment of interest for loans from different sources.
"The state finance minister had recently stated that the state has Rs 4900 crore in the exchequer as of now. However, it is not sufficient. The ongoing lockdown has also deprived the state of its own revenue generation, which is likely to deal a severe blow in the days to come," said the sources.
Although the state is supposed to receive Rs 1500 crore from the Centre to deal with the COVID-19 related expenses, the state is yet to receive the amount, officials said.
The ongoing lockdown has also led to a substantial reduction in the realization of GST returns--while the state had received Rs 932 crore as GST returns in the first quarter of the last financial year, the amount has reduced to mere Rs 192 crore in the current fiscal.
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It may be mentioned here that the Assam government has decided to impose a 25 per cent tax on the IMFL which is expected to generate Rs 1000 crore for the state exchequer.
Secretary of the Sadou Asom Karmachari Parishad (SAKP) Basab Kalita thanked the government for being able to pay the salary for the month of April to all the employees and hoped that the government will be able to keep the growth steady by undertaking the proper steps.
"Different state governments have decided to cut the salaries of government employees. However, the Assam government had given the salaries to all the employees despite challenges. We hope the government will continue to pay the salaries to the employees and at the same time will ensure the growth," Kalita said.
"Lockdown had definitely cast a negative impact on the state's economy. Although the government had taken some steps to strengthen the state exchequer it is not sure if that will be sufficient to manage the crisis," said Debajit Mahanta, an economist based in Assam.
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