PMC’s wage bill increases 9 fold in 14 years

The PMC expenditure on staffers salary was ₹386.24 crore in 2009-10, increasing to ₹3,143.75 crore in 2023-24, according to the budget document

Increasing expenditure on employee’s salary is the biggest challenge before Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). The PMC’s wage bill has seen a nine-fold increase in the last 14 years. The PMC expenditure on staffers salary was ₹386.24 crore in 2009-10, increasing to ₹3,143.75 crore in 2023-24, according to the budget document.

The civic body has a large number of Class three and class four employees in the staff. (HT PHOTO)

Pune municipal commissioner Vikram Kumar on Friday presented the budget of ₹9,515 crore for the year 2023-24. While presenting the budget, commissioner pointed out that the civic body’s major expenditure is on employees’ salary, which is one third of the expenditure.

Officials pointed out that the actual income is less than the total budget amount every year but the salary expenditure never comes down.

In 2009-10, PMC expenditure on salaries was ₹386.24 crore, which increased to ₹909.20 crore in 2014-15 and touched ₹1,526.93 crore in 2019-20. The projected expenditure on salary for next financial year 2023-24 is ₹3,143.75 crore.

Officials also stated that the civic administration is hiring employees on contract for various services like security guards, road sweeping, public toilet cleaning, water staff, even then the expenditure on salaries is high.

Vikram Kumar said, “There are various reasons for increase in the salary component. The main reasons are the seventh pay commission, merger of 34 villages in the civic body and recruitment 400 new staff in 2022-23. As the new villages were merged, their staff too became a part of PMC.”

An official requesting anonymity said, “The civic body has a large number of Class three and class four employees in the staff. Currently PMC has a staff of around 19,000 to cater to the services of a population of 50 lakh. Considering the high population, the number of staffers is not much. It is true that currently the employee expenditure is high, however, there responsibility of those employees is also a lot. Even while considering the increasing salary component, inflation must also be considered.”