Sindh govt bumps up govt employees' salaries in provincial budget 2020-21

KARACHI: The Sindh government has decided to increase the salaries of public officials, Prime Minister Murad Ali Shah said Wednesday in presenting the provincial budget for the fiscal year 2020-21 at the assembly.

In his budget speech, CM Shah announced that salaries for grade 1 to 16 employees would increase by 10%, while those in grades 17-21 would receive a 5% increase. However, the upward revision would not apply to provincial ministers and the Sindh cabinet, he added.

Previously, the budget session started under the president of the Sindh Assembly, Agha Siraj Durrani, where the prime minister, who also has the portfolio for the provincial finance minister, presented the disbursement for the current year.

Shah said he had the honor of presenting the budget for the eighth time. "This year's budget will be presented under difficult circumstances," he said, adding that Pakistan is fighting the pandemic and the locust attacks at the same time.

He said that the Sindh government had formed a Corona Emergency Fund of Rs3 billion and that the province took the initiative for the closure before other provinces did the same.

CM Shah said that Rs1.3 billion of the Rs3 billion were paid by the Sindh government, while provincial employees gave a sum of Rs1.7 billion.

"In 2020-21, the estimate of Health Risk Allocation spending is Rs1.0 billion," he said, adding that the testing capacity for the virus has risen to 11,450 daily.

In all districts, there were 81 quarantine centers with 8,266 beds, and in June 2020, the number increased to 8,616, he told the assembly. He said 101 additional fans were purchased and that a local hospital in Nipa Chowrangi of Karachi received a grant of Rs2 billion.

"A committee was formed to provide timely and adequate facilities," Shah said, explaining that the committee purchased machinery and tools worth Rs 2.43 billion to cope with the pandemic.

The prime minister added that for the education sector, Rs21.1 billion was allocated for 11 new unapproved projects. He added that for the 265 pre-existing schemes and four new ones, Rs 13.2 billion were reserved.

Among other recommendations according to budget documents, a sum of Rs5 billion was allocated to deal with pandemic measures. The documents showed that there was no new agricultural research scheme in the provincial budget.

Recommendations also included the allocation of Rs7.2 billion and Rs1.86 billion for Malir Expressway and Karachi-Thatta two-way, respectively.

Earlier today, CM Shah had chaired a cabinet session at the CM House to review budget recommendations.

At the meeting, the Sindh cabinet had given its approval to increase the salaries of government employees by 10%, according to the provincial government spokesman.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Assembly's rules were slightly modified so that members could attend the session virtually from home.

Sources had previously said that only 25% of lawmakers would attend the session in person.

Special measures were taken before the session to guarantee the safety of the legislators since it would allow access to those MPAs that have been negative for the virus.