The Margao Municipal Council has finally started clearing the salaries of the regular municipal employees on day six of the month, but the civic body has a clear task cut out – to arrange funds to the tune of around Rs 60 lakh to credit the wages of the daily wage workers and effect payments to the two private agencies engaged for the door-to-door waste collection.
The salary bill of the regular employees is pegged at around Rs 1.60 crore. The long wait of the regular employees finally ended on Monday after the civic body tapped the salary reserve fund amounting to around Rs one crore with government approval. The civic body could arrange the balance amount of Rs 60 lakh as its coffers received revenue through construction license fees in the last few days.
Having credited the salaries of the regular employees, civic officials pointed out that the task ahead is to arrange funds to meet the wage bill amounting to around Rs 38 lakh. Civic officials said that it may take a couple of days before the municipality clears the wage bill of the daily wage workers.
However, if sources are to be believed, the two private agencies engaged in the door-to-door waste collection will have to wait for some time before their workers get their wages.
Civic officials in the know said that after crediting the wages of the daily wage workers and the payments of the door-to-door waste collection agencies, the MMC will be required to recoup the salary reserve fund.
“The municipality has managed to pay the salary bill by tapping the salary reserve fund. As per the norms, the civic body needs to recoup the reserve fund to meet future emergencies,” remarked an official.
The official, however, has warned that the delay in the payment of salaries is a wake-up call to tone up the revenue recovery and mop up additional revenue.
“The civic body has a task cut out to recoup the salary fund and mop up revenue for the payment of salaries for March,” the official added.
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