After months of asserting that there is no financial crisis in the State, the government finally decided to implement the VII Pay Commission recommendations for its staff, giving them a substantial raise in their take home salaries and also paying the arrears that would be due. But that has come at a price, as the government has brought in some non-essential, non-plan austerity measures, which include curtailing some expenditure, so as to meet the increased monthly salary bill that will go up by Rs 48 crore a month. As a first, foreign tours by ministers, MLAs and government employees that are ‘unwanted’ have been banned, and so too have been promotional events at the international level. There are also attempt being made to rationalise the expenditure on social welfare schemes introduced by the government during this term, which will be done in the financial year 2017-18.
Some tightening of the belt was expected as when notifying the commission payout, the government had said that some ‘urgent measures to rationalise expenditure on various components of its spending’ would be required so as to ‘mop up revenue resources, in order to minimise the immediate effect, as well as the implications on the State finance over the next five years’.
The curb on expenses had to be brought about as the government is not in a position to impose additional taxes and neither would it want to burden the people with more taxes with an Assembly election just weeks away. As a senior officer of the government said, the only solution was non-essential, non-plan expenditure, and he added that the ministers and departments will ‘feel the pinch but this was essential’. In current times, rare is the example of the political class sacrificing so that the government employee can get a better deal. Had it not been this close to an election, would the austerity measures include the ban on foreign trips?
Yet, the key term here is ‘non-essential’ foreign tours and international promotional events. Banning both of these is good, but why would the government ever desire to send its ministers and officers on ‘non-essential’ tours at the cost of the exchequer? Does this constitute an admission that the tax-payers’ money is being used to send ministers on holidays abroad? This can very well be taken as such an admission as it comes from a senior government officer. Any tour, for that matter any government expenditure involving the tax-payer’s money, should be of an essential nature. It should not ever be nonessential.
There have been reports in the past of various tours that have been undertaken by politicians at the government cost which could be described as non-essential. One such tour, of ministers and MLAs,that resulted into huge controversy, and ended up with some politicians dropping out, and others paying for the tour from their pockets, was the junket to the Football World Cup in Brazil in 2014. That of course was utterly nonessential and the fact that the government wriggled out of it by making those who went on it pay, proves this. It was a junket, a way of the government keeping its MLAs happy.
While the payout to the employees increases, hopefully the VII Pay Commission will bring about some introspection on expenditure, the number of employees and the financial situation in the State. There are over 1.5 lakh employees and pensioners who will be benefitting from this commission. The government has already placed a moratorium on new recruitments and now the curbs on nonessential expenditure. But neither of these measures can be expected to remain in force for long. Once a new government is sworn in, there will be changes. Continuity in administration and policy is something that Goa is not known for, though it is required.
