The All Pakistan Government Employees Federation (APGEF), Punjab Government Employees Association, and Income Tax Employees Welfare Association have strongly reacted to government's proposal to curtail government employees' salaries by 25 percent from the raise of 50 percent announced in the 2010-11 budget and said that it would prove futile as this move would save only Rs one billion in the four-month remaining period.
They threatened to launch a country-wide movement for protection of 1.3 million employees. The government has presented a proposal in the joint parliamentary committees meeting of the PPP and PML-N to cut the salaries of government employees working in Grades 17 and above the other day. An official of Finance Ministry said that this move would save only Rs one billion in the remaining four months (March-June) of the current fiscal year 2010-11.
He further said that same proposal was discussed with high-ups of the government in December 2010, and at that time it was expected to save Rs 2.4 billion in six months (January-June) period of the ongoing financial year. However, it was not taken up further at that time. According to sources, the government's proposal stands only for federal government employees. However, provinces could also adopt it in their austerity plans.
It may be mentioned here that the government has been working on a plan to reduce the soaring fiscal deficit, which could go beyond seven percent of the GDP, against the target of 4.7 percent, mainly due to the government's excessive expenditures and lower tax collection so far in the current financial year.
Meanwhile, sources said that the government's whole austerity plan would help in reducing the expenditures by some Rs 15 billion. In the austerity plan, the government has already decided to reduce the size of the cabinet and it is expected that provincial governments might also reduce their cabinets' size.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.