Cash-Strapped Kerala Exploits Sharia laws To Get Muslims To Forgo Interest On Salary Arrears

First, the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front government defaulted on granting the 2014 Pay Revision arrears to its employees. Then it slashed the interest rate on the arrears to 8% from 8.7%. And now the Finance minister T M Thomas Issac has exploited religion to trim the pay burden further.

Issac has given an option to its government employees to forgo interest on the 2014 pay revision arrears, an initiative targeting the Muslims who under Sharia laws are forbidden to give or receive interest, reported The New Indian Express.

Of the 6 lakh government employees in Kerala, 10.4% are Muslims, according to the Sachar Committee report.

The Opposition Muslim League and the Congress are happy.

The State Employees Union (SEU), the trade organization affiliated to the Indian Union Muslim League, has welcomed the move.

"We welcome the option to forego the interest. Till now many employees did not have a choice," said Nasar Nangarath, state secretary, SEU.

The Congress-affiliated Kerala Non-Gazetted Officers Association's Kasargod district president M P Kunhi Moideen said he knew several employees who used the interest from arrears and Provident Fund for charity.

Expectations are high from economist-turned-politician Thomas Issac, whose government took over in 2016. In the first session of the assembly in 2016, Kerala governor P. Sathasivam spotlighted the stark reality that there is no money in the state treasury for capital expenditures like construction of roads or bridges.