AP staff anger rises over financial woes

RAJAHMUNDRY: State government employees were critical of the Centre for imposing a series of curbs on cash withdrawal from their bank accounts that was causing them hardships in meeting household expenses in the aftermath of demonetisation of high denomination notes.

Though the state government had assured that it would remit salaries into the bank accounts on December 1, no employee got wages when last reports came in on Thursday. The employees said that after their wages are remitted, they would have to withdraw the amount and pay rent and clear bills for milk, essential commodities, telephones, internet, newspapers, cable TV, and school fees.

The employees asked how they could meet their expenses when the Centre had imposed a Rs 24,000 limit on withdrawals a week. Another pressing problem was having to wait for long hours at banks when they are supposed to be at work. Thier frequent absenteeism would  cause problems and their seniors were pulling them up.

Adding to their woes, people said that even after waiting for a long  time, there was no guarantee of getting the cash. Often ATMs went dry and bank officials cite lack of cash.

AP Revenue Service Association West Godavari unit president L. Vidya Sagar said, “We have not received wages so far from the state government. Even if our wages are remitted into our bank accounts, our problems will continue because of the limit that is imposed on withdrawal of cash for a week. My house owner refused to accept rent online insisting that I make the payment in hard cash. He is not bothered about a delay of a few days to get the rent. He is scared that once the online payment is made, there will be tax deduction. We want both the Centre and state government to intervene in the current situation and help us to overcome the cash crunch.”

Scrapped notes put to good use
People have asked Central and state governments to permit them to pay property taxes with demonetised notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. The Kakinada Municipal Corporation (KMC) is imposing Rs 2 interest on property taxes as late fee. After demonetisation announcement, many owners paid their taxes and dues to dispose off old notes.

The KMC earned Rs 3 crore in revenue between November 8 and 24. According to officials, November is generally a weak month for revenue collections. With the demonetisation affect, the people used the scrapped currency to pay property taxes. There is a demand of Rs 36 crore, including Rs 10 crore for the KMC, of which the KMC earned nearly Rs 16 crore till now.

According to the officials, if the government allows demonetised notes up to the end of December, another '2 crore may be paid by the property owners. However, the KMC officials made it clear to the property owners that as per instructions of the Director of Municipal Administration, the Corporation was able to take cancel water dues only with scrapped notes.

“The government has given a date for validation of demonetisation notes up to December 30. How can the government stop notes for validation in civic bodies and government departments," said former councillor Mr. Dusarlapudi Ramana Raju.

He has been staging agitation for the past 11 days against demonetisation and also demanding the government to pay property taxes from government buildings and also conducting elections for the KMC immediately.

He took out a procession up to Kakinada Port Office blindfolded and holding posters displaying arrear amounts and demanded port officials to pay Rs.6.50 crore of its dues for the development of Kakinada City.

He said the Port department had to pay Rs 4.67 crore for property tax, Rs 1.19 crore of water tax and Rs 59.12 lakh from Fishing Harbour. He said due to the non-conduct of municipal elections for the KMC for the past seven years, nobody demanded government offices to settle dues.

Call to give cashless drive a push
Rajahmundry Urban MLA Akula Satyanarayana called upon traders to adopt cashless financial transactions. Taking part in an awareness programme on cashless transactions among the petty traders at Kotagummam Centre here on Thursday, the legislator said that the traders have got a good opportunity to inculcate the habit of practicing cashless financial transactions because both the Centre and state government were committed to promote such practice and would help them in this venture.

Referring to the Centre's demonetisation, the legislator said that though it was causing some problem to the people it would help them in the long run because the Centre’s main aim is to eliminate the role of middlemen and to help the genuine and poor beneficiaries get real benefits from the welfare schemes. This can be achieved soon.