Pathanamthitta: The Kerala Government has defaulted on paying the monthly deductions from both KSRTC employees' salaries and the management’s share under the Contributory Pension Scheme amounting to Rs 300 Crore to the National Pension System (NPS). As a result, there is a shortage of lakhs of rupees in the accounts of the KSRTC employees.

Each employee's account should show between Rs 10 and Rs 12 Lakh, depending on their share of the pension scheme. However, currently, these accounts only contain Rs 6,000 to Rs 2 lakh.

Due to the financial crisis, the government stopped remitting the deducted amount to the NPS Trust and used it to cover KSRTC's day-to-day expenses.

The National Pension System came into existence in 2013. A few of the employees who joined the service after the establishment of the NPS Trust have retired in recent years. The benefits and pensions for them, however, have not been properly provided. The families of those who died while in service have also not received the benefit.

Every month, the government deducts 10 percent from an employee's total salary for the National Pension System (NPS). Additionally, the management is required to contribute 10 percent of its share to the Trust.

However, the management decided to divert this amount to pay its expenses due to the severe financial crisis at KSRTC.

In addition to pension scheme participation, the management is also grappling with a crisis stemming from non-department recovery (NDR) loans taken by employees from various cooperative banks using their salary certificates. The monthly repayment of these loans is deducted directly from their salaries.

Moreover, the management has been negligent in properly remitting the deducted amounts from employees' salaries. This issue has adversely impacted the CIBIL scores of employees. 

Additionally, since the 2021 pay revision, employees have not received any dearness allowance (DA), only annual increments.