Govt may decide against pay rise for top officials
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government is likely to back off from a plan to raise the take-home pay of senior officials following public criticism.
But Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi said the government would raise the salaries of low ranking civil servants, military personnel and police officers as well as senior officials (grade four civil servants) who have no "structural or functional posts".
"Most likely, the increase in the take-home pay of high- ranking state officials will not happen as we want to prioritize staff on low salaries," he told the press on Monday after a meeting between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the deputy to the state minister for state apparatus empowerment, Soenaryo, and the director general of the state budget, Achmad Rochjadi.
The government considered the move to increase the salaries of low ranking civil servants as essential as many of them had been facing difficulties in fulfilling their basic needs.
"That's our priority," Sudi said.
Currently, there are about six million civil servants, 500,000 military personnel and 125,000 police officers.
The take-home pay of grade one civil servants is no more than Rp 500,000 (about US$52) a month, which is below the minimum provincial wage (UMR) set for workers in the private sector in Jakarta.
The take-home pay of grade four civil servants stands at around Rp 2 million, but they do no get facilities in carrying out their tasks.
The monthly take-home pay of a minister is around Rp 20 million, while the president gets Rp 50 million. But they also receive various allowances and facilities, such as official residences and cars.
The government earlier planned to increase the take-home pay for the president, vice president and ministers by around five percent as part of the wider plan to raise the salaries of civil servants, military personnel and police officers.
As for grade one and two civil servants, their income will be increased by up to 30 percent while grade three and four officials will receive a 15 percent rise. First echelon officials, such as directors general in ministries, were originally supposed to get up to a 7 percent salary increase.
But the plan to hike the salaries of top officials drew strong criticism amid the current difficulties bedeviling the state finances and the economic hardship faced by the public.
The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), which supports the government, has officially announced its opposition to the plan.
The government needs approval from the House of Representatives to go ahead with its plan. The government has yet to include the exact amount of money needed for the pay rises in the state budget. In the 2005 budget, the government allocated Rp 34.6 trillion for the salaries and allowances of civil servants, police and military personnel, as well as pensioners.