PANAJI
The step of the government to abruptly stop the House Building Advance (HBA) scheme has seriously affected some government employees as a higher amount of installment is being debited from these employee's salaries. One of the employees has received a salary of Rs 7 in hand while another took home only Rs 100.
Around 5,000 employees have availed loans under the HBA scheme. Under the scheme, government employees used to avail housing loans at 2 percent interest while the remainder of the interest would be paid by the government. But with the ceasing of the scheme since May 2020, the burden of additional interest on loan has befallen on them which roughly works out to 6 percent with the housing loan interest hovering around 7-8 percent.
As a result of the govt putting an end to the scheme and the mounting interest to be paid, employees find themselves finacially rattled vis-a-vis their monthly budget with the loan installment amount increasing threefold. There are some employees who have also availed additional loans from cooperative societies and other banks.
The government has argued that the weak financial position of the government treasury is the reason behind closing the HBA scheme. Commenting on this, aggrieved government employees have asked why there is no plug on unwanted expenditure on government purchase of vehicles for ministers, MLAs and various corporations chairmen. The rule has to apply to all and not only government employees, they said.
