Retired govt employees to get 10 per cent pension raise

 

ISLAMABAD: The retired employees of the federal government will get an increase up to 10 per cent in their monthly pensions from July 1, ARY News reported on Friday.

Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin made the announcement while unveiling the federal budget 2021-22 in the National Assembly (NA) today.

The special allowance will be increased from Rs14,000 to Rs17,500. The finance minister added that the special allowance for the Grade 1 to 5 employees was also being increased from Rs450 to Rs900 besides fixing the minimum monthly wage up to Rs20,000.

During his budget speech, Shaukat Tarin said that a 10 per cent increase in salaries and pensions of the government employees will be made while no new taxes were imposed on the salaried persons for the next fiscal year.

Tarin said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government inherited a crumbling economy that forced the government to take tough decisions.

“PM Khan took out the ill economy from the ICU with his difficult decisions,” he said and added that the premier is not afraid of making the tough decisions.

Sharing the achievements of the incumbent government, Shaukat Tarin during the budget speech said that tax collections saw an 18 per cent increase last year as the country crosses the limit of Rs4000 tax collection. “We have made 75 per cent more tax refunds,” he said.

With an increase of 36.4%, the federal government has proposed Rs900 billion for the development budget for the fiscal year 2021-22.

According to the budget 2021-22 document, the annual development budget for Punjab has been fixed at Rs500 billion for the upcoming fiscal year 2021-22 after an increase of Rs190 billion.

The federal government has projected Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate at 4.8% for the upcoming fiscal year 2021-22.