Islamabad:
An organization of the cabinet approved on Monday a new honorary policy for civil servants, giving discretionary powers the Minister of Finance to approve the budget for the employees of the Economic Ministries, the Parliament and the Prime Minister, according to a statement.
Directed by the Minister of Finance Muhammad Aurangzeb, the Cabinet’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) “approved a summary of the finance division, describing the granting policy for government employees,” he said.
The ECC authorized the Minister of Finance to “grant budgetary fees to employees published in the Finance Division, the income division, the Federal Board of Renta (FBR), the planning, development and division of special initiatives, the Secretariat of the National Assembly, the Senate Secretariat and the Prime Minister’s office”, according to the newly approved policy.
“The quantum of budgetary fees for each financial year is decided by the Minister of Finance”, reads the new policy which gives discretionary powers to the Minister of Finance to distribute as much honor of the budget as he judges it in shape without any higher ceiling.
The tax rate of these budget fees will also be much lower than standard tax rates. According to the policy which is subject to the approval of the federal office, “the taxation of fees will be in the process of taxation of the monetization allowance”. Bureaucrats receiving a monetization allowance pay only 5% of income tax on the amount they receive as a monetization allocation.
“Payment tax under the compulsory monetization of transport facilities for officials from BS-20 to BS-22 (as reduced by the deduction of driver’s salary) will be billed at the rate of 5% as a separate income block,” reads the tax law.
Responding to the requests of L’Express PK Press Club, the Minister of Finance Muhammad Aurangzeb said that “the granting of honor of the budget has always been with the Minister of Finance as President of the ECC”.
He added that the Minister of Finance was best placed to assess efforts in budget creation, because his work involved working closely with all the economic ministries associated with the formulation and implementation of the budget.
“Secondly, the supposed discretion is exercised on the recommendations of honor and PAOS committees and is also subject to a delegated assessment within the constituent units of each ministry,” added the minister.
Based on another question on the tax rate on these fees, the Minister of Finance said that “budgetary fees are a single award regime and therefore taxed at a different rate of salary”.
Overall, the new policy rationalizes the awards that bureaucrats exceed their standard wages. Currently, federal secretaries have been authorized to give an 18th year fee during an exercise.
Above the 18th year, the approval of the President of the ECC was necessary. According to the new policy, the federal secretary will be empowered to give a fee to all employees, except for himself.
A new reward category is also announced for all employees of the federal government. Currently, there is no award regime in place for very efficient people of the federal government, who demotivate very efficient employees, according to the Ministry of Finance.
Now, it has been decided that the federal secretary can give an equal honorary performance to a basic salary, on exceptional performance, no more than 25% of employees in a ministry or a division in BPS 1-22, with the exception of himself. The federal minister of the federal secretary will be decided by the federal minister, according to the decision.
With the exception of an annual award, a performance award and as many budgetary awards as the Minister of Finance wishes, no other fees will be granted, including those associated with religious festivals such as Eid and Christmas, according to the new policy. Employees who have received budgetary fees will not be eligible for the granting of honor of ordinary and performance fees.
The new police stipulates that no honorary will be paid in cash and that all payments of honor must be reflected in payroll statements. Performance fees will not be granted by a ministry, if the employee has not served in this ministry for less than six months.
No fees, with the exception of exceptional performance fees, will be granted before May 1, during an exercise. Employees who have received budgetary fees will not be eligible for the granting of honor of ordinary and performance fees.
If ordinary and performance honorariums have already been granted to an employee, who benefits from the budget honor, the amount of budgetary fees will be adjusted against the performance fees already drawn. No employees will receive more than one organization fees.
Meanwhile, the ECC approved 61.2 billion rupes of additional grants for various ministries, mainly for the payment of short -term debt. It approved 1.7 billion rupees for the Ministry of Defense “for the technological upgrading of the ISPR”, according to the Ministry of Finance.
The meeting approved 1.3 billion complaints in grant so that the Ministry of Finance returns the amount to the Sindh government as unused funds from the reimbursement program in wheat seeds. It approved 40.3 billion rupees for the Division of Economic Affairs due to revised budgetary estimates for the 201024-25 financial years for the reimbursement of short-term loan credits.
The ECC has also approved a summary of the electricity division for the approval of a tripartite power purchase agreement of 1,145 MW Karachi Nuclear Plant Unit-2 (K-2) and Unit-3 (K-3) in Karachi.
The ECC examined a summary of the Ministry of Commerce and approved a modification of the order on import policies (IPO) for public production entities and their commercial subsidiaries in exclusive ownership. The ECC has also approved a summary of the Ministry of Housing for the withdrawal of directives for the transfer of the Hyderabad package and the Karachi package from the Sindh government to Pidcl.
