Govt employees in Karnataka may not face pay-cut this month
Bengaluru: The Karnataka Government may spare its employees from salary cuts this month despite severe resources crunch it faces following steep fall in revenue collection due to the ongoing lockdown to fight the coronavirus, official sources said on Tuesday.
As of now, there is no problem with April salary and we can manage. But if May also turns out to be a wash-out (in terms of revenue collection), then the situation is going to be very tough, a senior Minister told PTI.
Ministers and members of Karnataka Legislature are taking a 30 per cent pay-cut for a year from April 1 this year. Opposition Congress in the state has vehemently opposed any possible move to cut salaries of government employees.
You just cant even imagine, the Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had told PTI in an interview earlier this month on the economic impact of the lock-down on the state's finances.
Yediyurappa had also said that the government is now not in a position to implement Budget proposals, barring important ones, with all kinds of revenue collections having completely stopped following the lockdown.
The government recently said it proposes to regularise unauthorised properties in the state by imposing penalty, and also auction more than 12,000 corner sites belonging to the Bengaluru Development Authority, as part of resource mobilisation drive.
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Toll charges across Karnataka to rise by up to 5% from April 1
Bengaluru: Vehicle users across Karnataka will pay higher toll charges from April 1, with rates set to increase by 3–5 per cent as part of the annual inflation-linked revision. The revised fares are expected to be formally notified in the coming days.
A senior official from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was quoted by Decan Herald as saying that the hike is linked to the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) and will apply to nearly all toll plazas in the state. Around 10 toll plazas, however, will see revised rates later in the year, from September 1.
The official explained that the increase is calculated in line with the WPI and then rounded off. “If the hike works out to ₹2.5 or more, it will be rounded off to ₹5,” he said.
The Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway which was inaugurated in 2023, will see revised rates in toll plazas of Kaniminike and Sheshagirihalli on the Bengaluru-Mysuru stretch, Bagepalli on the Bengaluru-Hyderabad highway, Sadahalli on the Bengaluru Airport Road, Nangli on the Bengaluru-Tirupati route along with Hulikunte and Nalluru Devanahalli on the Satellite Town Ring Road.
K B Jayakumar, Project Director, NHAI, told Deccan Herald that the revision has been carried out in accordance with the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008. “Toll charges at all public-funded plazas will be increased in accordance with the 2008 Fee Rules. This happens at the start of every financial year,” he said.
He added that in Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) toll plazas where operations commenced before 2008, the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 1997 apply, allowing fare revisions at other times during the financial year. A maximum hike of five per cent is expected.
Jayanth Reddy, a resident of Whitefield who frequently travels to Mysuru for work, told Deccan Herald that has witnessed multiple toll revisions since it became operational and the recurring hikes add to the burden on the costliest routes in the state. “A toll charge of ₹180 for one-way travel is already quite high,” he said.
Travel operators also expressed concern. Santosh, who runs a travel agency, said passengers travelling from Bengaluru to Kerala are particularly affected. “We pass on the entire toll charge to customers. At present, the total toll for a road trip ranges between ₹2,000 and ₹3,000,” he said.
