REACTION BY UNIONS

MULTAN,Feb 11th:All Pakistan Government Employees Federation (APGEF),Punjab Government Employees Association, Income Tax employees Welfare Association have strongly reacted on government’s proposal of curtailing the government employees’ salaries by 25 per cent from the raise of 50 per cent announced in the budget 2010-11and said that it would prove futile one, as this move would save only Rs one billion in four-month period.They threatened to launch a country wide movement for the 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 Grade 17 and above on the other day.An official of Finance Ministry informed 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 on 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 on that time.According to the sources, the government’s proposal stands only for federal government’s employees, however, provinces could also adopt it in their austerity plans.It might be mention here that the government was working on a plan to reduce the soaring fiscal deficit which could go beyond seven per cent of the GDP against the target of 4.7 per cent mainly due to the government’s excessive expenditures and lower tax collection in the so far period of ongoing financial year.Meanwhile, sources further informed that whole government’s austerity plan would help in reducing the expenditures by some Rs 15 billion. In austerity plan, the government had already decided to reduce the volume of its cabinet and it is expected that provincial governments might also reduce their cabinets’ size.