It's time for India's law makers to accept pay cut.

It's time for India's Law Makers to accept pay  cut. Salaries in Government Organizations are determined by recommendations of Pay Commission. Every year there is an increase in salaries and huge amounts are doled out as arrears. There is also dearness allowance which is always on a rising trend.This situation gives the impression that Pay Commission is insulated from actual economic situation outside. There is slower internal demand ,lower GDP , Companies slowing down production , Cut in advertisement budgets etc. Many companies have reported lower Sales than last year forcing them not to give any pay hike to their employees. Many directors have opted to not to take fees in view of bad results. At 5% India reported slowest GDP growth. Projection next year has been lowered by RBI and CRISIL both. The CRISIL have also said that India's economic slow down is deeper and more broad based than suspected. There is a decline in automobile sale and increase in housing stock. It is estimated that India's top 30 cities have nearly 12.8 lac unsold ready houses as per real estate expert Liases Foras. There has been a decline in FMCG products , steel consumption etc. The companies and individuals who have taken loan from NBFCs are defaulting and so also bank loans taken by NBFCs. This has resulted into a huge liquidity crunch. The salary bills of Government Employees is a big drain on Indian Exchequer. Many municipal corporations spend 55 to 60% of tax collection only in paying salaries. In case of railways salary bill and pension bill is of equal amount. The only income is passenger tickets and dwindling freight business. How to keep on serving such huge salary bill by competing with buses ,share taxis and even airlines ? Public sector telecom companies like BSNL ,MTNL are finding it difficult to service their salary bill which has swelled over period of time. The slower economic growth has forced Government to announce certain relaxations like reduction in super rich tax and lowering tax liability of high turnover companies. This is directly going to translate into lower funds available to Government. They will be forced to adopt austerity measures. Salary bill is one of them. If Private Sector employees , Businessman , Directors are accepting pay cut then why not Government Employees ? Pay Commission should declare reduction in salaries and negative DA as per economic environment. It has been also observed that while there is so much debate in Parliament and Legislative Assembly on other bills and many times certain crucial bills get postponed. However when it comes to pay and allowances of MP and MLA same gets passed without any debate or delay. It is imperative that MP / MLAs to accept pay cut and give away their allowances. They should be also prepared to accept this for longer time as Slowdown is here to stay.Datt Udas-datt.udas63@gmail.com