Telangana cuts salaries by up to 75% amid coronavirus outbreak

Hyderabad : The Telangana government has decided to cut down the salaries of its staff by up to 75% to cope up with the economic crisis the state government is facing due to coronavirus outbreak. The salary cut will be imposed on its executive, political representatives and employees. There will be cuts for all Public Sector Undertakings, institutions that are receiving government grants, government employees and retirees.

The economies across the world have taken a deep hit and to put this in perspective, last week IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva claimed that the world has entered a recession that will be worse than that of 2009. 

To combat the situation, the government has set up a task force headed by Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, which will be closely examining the situation and work towards reviving it with best-suited suggestions. 

Telangana took action early. On Sunday, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had hinted at part-payment and delay in salary. The decisions announced today were taken at a high-level review meeting held earlier at Pragathi Bhavan to discuss the financial situation of the state.

The salary of Chief Minister will be cut by 75 per cent, along with his cabinet, MLCs, MLAs, state corporation chairpersons and local bodies representatives.

There will be 60 per cent salary cut for IAS, IPS IFS and other Central Services Officers For the other category of employees, there will be a 50 per cent salary cut, the government said.

For Class IV, outsourcing and contract employees, there will be a 10 per cent cut in salary.

Pensioners will have to take a 50 per cent cut and for Class IV retired employees, there will be 10 per cent cut, the government said.