Cesspool? Rs 1,300 crore raised but pensions pending for 5 months

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state govt has collected Rs 1,300 crore in 13 months from cess on diesel/petrol and foreign liquor. Given that the govt had promised to utilise these funds towards paying the arrears in social security and welfare pensions and it needs approximately Rs 900 crore/month to disburse these pensions, this raises a larger question as to how long it will have to tap the public for meeting these commitments in the backdrop of its poor financial condition.
Interestingly, the LDF had in 2021 promised to raise the pension amount from Rs 1,600 to Rs 2,500, but has not implemented it yet, obviously owing to the govt's dire financial situation. The pensions are pending for the past five months. As of now, there are 50,97,901 social security pension beneficiaries and another 6,73,659 beneficiaries who draw pensions through various welfare boards. The govt had imposed a cess of Rs 2/litre on petrol/diesel and Rs 20 and Rs 40 under two different price slabs on foreign liquor from May 1 last year.
As per the data furnished in assembly, it has collected a cess of Rs 1,050.93 crore from petrol/ diesel and Rs 253.87 crore from liquor till May 31, totalling to Rs 1,304.8 crore. The collection has largely remained uniform every month, between Rs 80 crore to Rs 95 crore in the case of fuel and Rs 18 crore to Rs 25 crore in liquor. The highest collection in fuel cess was recorded in June last year (Rs 95.60 crore), and in liquor Sept (Rs 23.95 crore).
Finance department sources said the state would not be able to meet its commitments in the near future. “The state’s revenue commitments are huge, and that keeps increasing because of political reasons. On the contrary, resource mobilisation is very poor and meeting these commitments would become more and more difficult as we move forward,” a senior officer said.
Subsequent govts have been increasing the number of beneficiaries in the social security pension net. When the UDF govt came to power in 2011, the number of beneficiaries was 16,23,401. Also, the pension amount was Rs 400 in 2011. “The LDF govt has miserably failed in meeting its commitments on social security and welfare pensions. Once a commitment is given, the govt is duty-bound to meet it.
Even the welfare pensions to which beneficiaries are contributing have also failed, as many of them are not remitting their share since they are not receiving pensions on time. One of the viable options could have been to attract more beneficiaries to the welfare boards from the social security schemes,” CMP leader C P John said.