Call it Labour Day, May Day or International Workers’ Day, it’s a day when the nation rises up to salute its huge workforce. In Goa, as the May Day arrived, government-aided teachers were yet to recover from the rude shock they were dealt with by the government on account of their 7th pay arrears. The good news was that they finally managed to get their first block of payment of arrears for the calendar year 2016. The bad news was that the payment was made into the Provident Fund accounts on March 29 leaving them with virtually no time to plan additional tax saving. And the worst news was teachers were asked to pay the entire additional tax liability before the end of April.
This came as a bolt from the blue for many teachers who had no other option but to part with almost their entire April salary with a full month of housekeeping expenses to deal with. The entire procedure has been so well knit that it leaves no scope for teachers to argue, since an undertaking was earlier taken by the Education Department fixing responsibility on school heads to collect TDS from respective teachers.
It is obvious that the government couldn’t afford to pay such money at one go against the kind of financial crunch it is facing. But such autocratic practices leave a bitter aftertaste, especially in a department which is headed by the chief minister himself.
From better pay to improved working conditions, the Labour class continues to fight for its rights across the world. The Goa incident, for its uniqueness, will be etched in the books as a rare one where well-earned money of employees has been snatched back on the eve of Workers Day. If there were concerns of staff welfare, the deposit of arrears could have been done in a phased manner giving sufficient time for staff to do their tax planning and offset the liability.
If the government treasury is running dry, what happened to the promises that were held out in the January-end State budget? And what josh was then chief minister Manohar Parrikar talking about? If it was about financial josh, then this move has left government employees behosh. It reflects that corners are being cut and it reflects the grave financial situation that the State is in.
It’s time the government devises ways to revive fiscal revenue. There are no positive signs of mining resumption, a sector that has been the biggest revenue churner and there have been no positives on the tourism sector either. The government will have to come out with something concrete to open up revenue streams rather than resort to such drastic measures.
