Disparity in pay scales: Civil servants must wait for pay raise

At present, employees of some of the government departments are getting more than the normal pay of civil servants.

Islamabad (Express Tribune / Shahbaz Rana / Saturday, October 20, 2012) – As pressure mounts on the government to bring an end to discriminatory practices, the Pay Committee has decided to keep the pay scales of civil servants unchanged while vowing to address genuine concerns of the employees without putting additional strain on the exchequer.

Headed by former State Bank of Pakistan governor Dr Ishrat Husain, the committee decided on Friday that in its efforts to remove disparity in salaries, it will adopt a path that will have no implications for the budget.

The government constituted the committee to rationalise or bring maximum possible equality in the salaries of employees working in equal basic pay scales in various government departments. At present, employees of some of the government departments are getting more than the normal pay of civil servants.

Few of these departments are the Presidency, Prime Minister Secretariat, Federal Board of Revenue, judiciary, armed forces, National Highway and Motorway Police, Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority, National Accountability Bureau and PM’s Security.

The employees of the Accountant General of Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) have given a deadline to the government either to increase their salaries or withdraw the raise given to other departments. The budget constraints have forced the finance ministry to undertake an assessment before taking any decision.

3 options for New Pay Scales Structure

Amin said the committee decided that in the first phase only the salaries of civil servants will be rationalised and pay scales of the judiciary and armed forces will be considered in the second phase.

Disparity of Salaries among various govt employees

According to calculations of the finance ministry, a grade 22 civil servant is normally getting monthly salary of Rs122,936. The same official, if working in ERRA, will get Rs154,117, in FBR his salary will be Rs187,286, in Presidency and Prime Minister Secretariat Rs170,747 and in NAB Rs154,117.

The grade 22 officer of the Supreme Court, Islamabad High Court, Federal Shariat Court and the law ministry will get the highest salary of Rs234,685. In ISI, the grade 22 officer is getting Rs149,961 and a lieutenant general of the army will get Rs140,148.

Similarly, a grade 1 employee of a civil department will get Rs15,305 per month, in FBR the amount goes up to Rs22,003, in ERRA Rs18,193, in Presidency and PM Secretariat Rs20,273, in NAB Rs18,408, in NHA Rs29,001, in Model Traffic Police Rs29,433, in Eagle Force Rs19,625, in PM Security Rs20,921, in ISI Rs18,113 and in armed forces Rs19,452. The judiciary’s grade 1 employee is getting Rs32,686.

Consultation with Provinces

The finance ministry’s spokesman said the committee also decided to consult all the provinces before taking a final decision.

Implementation of Pay and Pension Commission Report 2009

It also decided to implement the remaining recommendations of the Pay and Pension Commission of 2009. These recommendations include monetisation of housing rent.

(Published in “Express Tribune” October 20, 2012)

Staff Report :: Daily Times, Islamabad Dated: 4th October, 2012 > Read direct from daily Time>

ISLAMABAD: The Finance Ministry is expected to finalise today (Thursday) a set of proposals on a comprehensive package, including unified pay scales, monetisation of housing facility as well as monetisation of conveyance facility for federal government employees from grade 1-19, official sources said.
The package is expected to be finalised during a meeting at the Finance Ministry and presented before Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Friday for initial approval, the sources added.
The main components of the proposed package are merger of all ad hoc relief allowances ranging from 55 percent, 60 percent, 65 percent, 85 percent at different ministries and divisions and allowing further increase in pay to equalise and upgrade all these to 100 percent increase in basic pay scales in proposed unified pay scheme.
The sources said monetisation of conveyance allowance for grade 1-19 federal employees is also part of the proposed package according to which government employees of Grade 19 would be given Rs 30,000, grades 17-18 Rs 20,000, Grade 16 Rs 12,500, grades 11-14 Rs 7,500, grades 5-10 Rs 4,500 and grades 1-4 Rs 3,000 as conveyance allows per month. Employees of grades 20-22 are already enjoying monetisation of transport facility and receiving handsome amounts along with salaries.
Proposal for monetisation of housing facility for government employees mainly aims at providing 75 percent of the basic pay as cash along with salaries in exchange for taking back official houses from the employees

The high-powered committee led by former Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Dr Ishrat Hussain has recommended attaching the condition for merging allowances that the pension bill should be frozen at the existing level of ad hoc relief allowances.

“There is a major stumbling block in the way of new pay scales that will pave the way for the increasing burden of the pension bill so the committee wants to kill two birds with one stone. It wants to ensure new pay scales by removing existing distortions,” a senior member of the committee said. “We want to put in place a mechanism through fresh pay scales where there will be no loss borne by public sector employees,” said the member of the committee. A heated debate occurred during the Pay Structure Committee meeting held on Monday at the Finance Division. The meeting continued for several hours in which the committee sought details from concerned ministries and departments where distortions were created in the name of special allowances in the pay structure.

The committee is all set to recommend abolition of the discriminatory system existing within the bureaucracy of the country. “The members of the committee have also questioned how the government would implement recommendations on removing existing anomalies in pay structure when a detailed report on civil service reforms was pending in files,” said the official.

The official said the committee would meet in the next few weeks again after getting assurances from the top leadership about the fate of its earlier recommendations and after reviewing the existing distortions. There are huge distortions in the existing pay structure as was revealed during the Public Accounts Committee. It was learnt that a Supreme Court driver was getting a monthly salary of Rs50,000, a driver for the State Bank of Pakistan was getting a monthly salary of Rs90,000 while the drivers in all other ministries were getting monthly salaries of Rs10,000 each.

Further, employees of the Presidency, Prime Minister’s Secretariat, Ministry of Finance, Federal Board of Revenue, Supreme Court, National Accountability Bureau and military personnel enjoy double salaries under the head of special allowances. The government constituted this committee, comprising six private sector members as well as federal secretaries from the Establishment Division and Finance Division and a few others. The task before the committee was to remove distortions in the pay structure of the Pakistan Army, judiciary and other institutions within the government.

The voice of all employees of the Government of Pakistan around the country by "Employees Network of Pakistan " (pmadit.com)