ISLAMABAD: The government on Thursday reversed its decision for providinghonorarium equal to three basic pays for all employees of the federalgovernment keeping in view the required cost of Rs93 billion and decided toprovide three honorarium to a selected few employees of ministries involvedin budget making process with the approval of Minister in Charge.
Minister for Finance Dr Miftah Ismail on Thursday night confirmed to TheNews that the government approved a summary of the Finance Division thatMinister in Charge might award three honorarium to certain number ofemployees of selected ministries, including Planning and Development,Finance, Revenue and Prime Minister’s Office. Earlier, he said that someconfusion had surfaced on this issue.
According to earlier notification issued by Secretary to the Prime MinisterFawad Hassan Fawad on May 25, 2018 stating that the PM/Chairman of the ECChas seen and is pleased to order that all employees of the federalgovernment shall be given honorarium equivalent to three basic pays forfinancial year 2017-18. No exception shall be allowed for payment in excessof the ceiling in any case.
The prime minister has further desired that for the financial year 2018-19onwards, a policy may be formulated by the new elected government afterElections 2018. The sources said that actually different ministriesproposed different honorarium requests to PM so the premier was advised togrant uniform formula to all employees without considering its exact cost.
When the budget wing of the Finance Ministry calculated on the basis of allemployees of the federal government, they were stunned to witness itsescalating cost to the tune of Rs93 billion.
After issuance of this notification, the Finance Ministry took a strongexception and informed the premier that if all employees of federalgovernment, including civilian and military, could cause heavy cost to thetune of Rs93 billion, the budget deficit might exceed 0.3 percent of GDP.
After second thought, the Finance Ministry forwarded another summary toCabinet for reconsideration of approval under which the old practice forproviding honorarium was restored as the Minister in Charge will grantapproval of this facility for selected officers belonging toministries/divisions involved in budget making process.