VADODARA: The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) may have to struggle to make salaries in the coming months if the octroi grant from the state government does not come on time. The civic body will have to liquidate its fixed deposits for this.The VMC gets an octroi grant of Rs 24crore from the state government every month. The grant has been christened as octroi grant as it was provided by the state government in lieu of the octroi tax that was abolished about a decade back.VMC sources said that the civic body has not received the grants for the month of January and February. Presently, the civic body is managing the salaries and other regular expenses from its own funds.Sources said that the civic body has to pay salaries to around 7,500 personnel and pensions to an equal number of retired employees. The total amount of the salary and pension bills runs into around Rs 35crore every month.According to officials, the issue of delay in disbursement of grants is a recurring one. "This happens in the last few months of the financial year. The situation is, however, manageable right now. We will have to liquidate the fixed deposits only if the grant for another month is not released," said an official.Usually, sources said, the grants are released after the budget session of the Gujarat assembly ends.This may be because the revised budget for the ongoing year is passed in the assembly, they added.

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