The Finance Minister presented Pay Revision Proposal in the National Assembly today. There are some major changes in the recommendations from the Pay Commission report which was released recently. The changes are with the revision on Teaching, Health and parliamentarians among others. According to the Finance Minister, the changes are made based on the principle of narrowing the gap.
While the Commission has recommended revision in the pay scale from 14% to 21% of the civil servants, the government proposes revision ranging from 12% to 24% with higher percentage revision at the lower position levels.
The recommendations have kept the teaching and health allowances on the top priority.
While Fourth Pay Commission has recommended revising the allowances of teachers by 20% of the new basic pay, the Government proposes to revise the teaching allowances ranging from 35%-55% based on the number of years served.
This was done in order to attract qualified professionals in the teaching profession.
Likewise, the Commission recommended existing allowance at the revised basic pay 10%-15% for Nurses and Clinical Staff based on number of years, 20%-35% for General Doctor without Master Degree based on number of years and 40% for Doctors with Master degree.
However, the Government recommends 35%-55% for Nurses and Clinical Staff based on the number of years served, 45% General Doctor without Master Degree based on number of years, 55% for Doctors with Master degree and a new Sub-specialist allowance at 60%. Recognising the sacrifices made by the health workers, the government endorsed the Commission’s recommendation to introduce Night Duty allowance at Nu.500 per night for all health professionals attending night duty for 12 hours as routine schedule requiring continuous patient care.
For the first time, House Rent Allowance shall not be paid to public servants who are provided with designated official residences.
Considering, that some of the remote areas are yet to be connected with motorable roads, the government considered proposing the porter and pony charges to lump sum 1,200 Ngultrum per dolam.
Considering the importance of mileage for monitoring the development activities, the government considered maintaining mileage rate at Nu.16 per kilometre for all levels, and the minimum travel distance is maintained at 10 km for the purpose of travel allowance.
The Commission also recommended 15% revision for the Thrompons without any revision for other Local Government functionaries. However, the Government has considered 14% revision for Thrompons and 18% to 24% revision for other Local Government functionaries. And for the first time, Thrompons and Gups can now avail vehicle quota or designated amount.
Commission proposed a revision of 14% for Prime minister, cabinet minister and equal position holders but it has now decreased to 6%. The commission’s proposed raise of 14% for Deputy Speaker, Deputy Chairperson and Members of Parliament is revised by the government to 12%.
The Government endorsed the recommendations of the commission to revise the Driver’s Allowance and Fuel/ Maintenance allowance from Nu.6000 to Nu.10000 and Nu.7000 to Nu.10000 respectively for Members of Parliament.
Allowances for Patang/Gentag, High Altitude, Cash Handling and Vehicle Purchase allowance for MPs among others will be maintained at the existing level as per the government’s endorsement of the Commission’s recommendation.
Since the release of the Pay Commission report on April 9, 2019, there has been numerous meetings and revisited the documents several times. Government has considered the implications from the pay revision and is assured that since the financial implication is within the outlay of the 12th FYP, it will not affect the fiscal position.
The Speaker declared the Pay Revision Proposal as a Money Bill in keeping with the provisions of the Constitution and the Public Finance (Amendment) Act and referred to the Government’s Pay Revision Report along with the Money Bill to the Economic and Finance Committee for review. The Committee will present its review report to the House on 10th June, 2019.
Civil servants can have the benefit of the revision of their pay and allowances effective from 1st July, 2019.
