Budget 2024-25: Sindh makes big announcement for govt employees

ISLAMABAD: Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani announced ‘big relief’ for the government employees ahead of the provincial budget 2024-25.

Chairing a meeting, Saeed Ghani said that the upcoming Sindh budget for the new financial year 2024–25 will have special fiscal provisions to ensure timely disbursal of salaries and pensions to the serving and retired employees of municipal agencies across the province.

The local government minister said the OZT (Octroi Zila Tax) share of the union councils and town committees in the province would also be increased in relation to the rise in recurring expenses of these municipal agencies.

He asked all the regional directors of the Sindh Local Government Department to compile at the earliest and send to the provincial authorities the lists of the serving and retired employees of the union councils and town committees drawing salaries and pensions in their respective jurisdictions.

Saeed Ghani said that the same data will be used to make provisions in the next provincial government budget for the protection of the salaries and pensions of the municipal staffers in Sindh.

The local government minister said the provincial government should get updated data about the number of serving and retired municipal employees and details of the complete expenditures of the union committees and town committees.

He said the earliest availability of such data would ensure that the upcoming provincial budget had ample fiscal provisions for paying salaries and pensions of the municipal staffers and disbursing an increased OZT share of the union committees and town committees.

Read More: Budget 2024-25: How much raise in salaries will govt employees get?

Meanwhile, The federal government is expected to present the budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 on June 12.

Sources said the government is working on different proposals for salary increases in the range of 10 to 15% for public sector employees in the upcoming budget FY 2024-25.

On the salaries front, the Ministry of Finance wants to raise the salary by just 10%, say sources.

There is another proposal under consideration to jack up monetisation for higher grade officers of grades 20, 21, and 22 in the range of 20 to 25%.

The grade 20 officers have been getting monetisation of cars in the range of Rs67,000 per month, grade 21 officers in range of Rs77,000 per month and grade 22 officers of Rs87,000 per month.