NEW DELHI, Oct 21: Allaying the apprehensions of its employees, the union cabinet headed by the prime minister Narenda Modi on Wednesday approved bonus for the non-gazetted central government employees for the last financial year.
The decision will benefit 30.67 lakhs non-gazetted employees to the tune of Rs 3,737 crores.
The central government bonus is normally declared before Dussehra but this year the government employees were apprehensive if they would get bonus this year because of the Corona pandemic and the pressure on the state exchequer because of the additional expenses required to be made to meet the situation while the earnings dipped due to lockdown.
The All India Railway Federations had given a call for a nationwide two-hour strike on Thursday demanding immediate disbursal of the bonus. The union said the government should not deny bonus pertaining to 2019-20 citing this year’s pandemic. Several other employees’ unions were also planning agitational course to press centre for an immediate decision.
Announcing the cabinet’s decision, the union minister for information and broadcasting said both productivity-linked bonus and non-productivity-linked bonus had been approved. The bonus would be disbursed in one installment and before Dussehra, he said.
The beneficiaries include 16.97 lakh non-gazetted employees from commercial establishments like railways, post office, EPFO, ESIC who will get their productivity-linked bonus having financial implications of Rs 2,791 crores while another 13.70 lakh government employees would get their non-productivity-linked bonus to the tune of Rs 946 crores.
“If middle class people have money in their hands during the festive season, demands will go up in the marker,” the minister said explaining the decision.
The bonus announcement comes after the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman last week announced Leave Travel Concession (LTC) voucher scheme which can be availed by private sector employees as well, and a festival advance for government employees to spur consumption demand.
Under the LTC scheme, the employees would be required to spend three times the LTC fare component to purchase items that attract 12 per cent or more Goods and Services Tax (GST). What this effectively means is that if your fare component of LTC is Rs 40,000, you need to spend Rs 1.2 lakh on goods that fall in the 12% or more GST slab in order to save tax on Rs 40,000. Through the LTC consumption boost plan, the government expects a demand generation of Rs 28,000 crore in the economy.
Under the festival advance scheme, all central government employees will get interest-free advance of Rs 10,000 that will be recovered in 10 installments. It will be given in the form of a pre-loaded RuPay card of the advance value. The government expects to disburse Rs 4,000 crore under the scheme by March 31.
(Manas Dasgupta)