THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Transport Minister KB Ganesh Kumar announced that the KSRTC would give salaries to employees on the first of every month. KSRTC requires close Rs 80 crore for salaries.

The money will be arranged through a Rs 100 crore overdraft at 10.8% interest from SBI, which shall be repaid using the monthly government aid of Rs 50 crore and the collection money. The minister explained that the effort was to reduce the interest burden as low as possible through early repayment.

“The money for salary will be made available through financial management. We aim to repay the overdraft money by 20th of every month. We will maintain the overdraft throughout,” said the minister.

The government provides aid of Rs 50 crore in two installments, the first on the 11th and the second on the 19th of every month. KSRTC could not either pay the salaries on time or pay the full amount since July 2021. The salary distribution of he previous month has begun.

Although the Transport Minister announced that salaries would be distributed from the first of every month starting in January, it did not happen due to technical issues. The major breakthrough came by way of repaying the debt of Rs 625 crore to KTDFC and replacing them with Kerala Bank in the bank consortium that provided loans to KSRTC.

The government acted as a guarantor to the money paid to service the debt. KTDFC charged a higher interest rate compared to other consortium member banks. The minister announced that KSRTC would set aside 5% of the revenue for pensions and the pension distribution will be on time within two months. KSRTC has already settled retirement benefits of employees up to May 2023. The LDF government has given over Rs 10,000 crore to KSRTC at various stages.