Announcing relief measures for the salaried class, Ishaq Dar said the government had proposed 30-35 percent increase in the salaries on ad-hoc basis and 17.5 percent enhancement in the pensions of the Federal Government employees, realizing their financial hardships due to the increased inflation.
The minister said the government had decided to give 35 percent ad-hoc relief in the salaries of employees from Grade1-16 and 30 percent to Grade-17-22 employees aimed at increasing their purchase power.
He also announced increasing the minimum pension fixing it at Rs 12,000 and minimum monthly wage from Rs 25,000 to Rs 32,000 within the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).
The minister said there was a proposal to enhance the pension of Employees‘ Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) from Rs 8,500 to Rs10,000.
Ishaq Dar said the government was going to introduce a scheme under which it would itself pay up to Rs 1 million loans of the Housing Building Finance Corporation (HBFC) owned by the widows of government employees.
The minister said the deposit limit of CDNS (Central Directorate of National Savings) Shuhada Account and Behbood Saving Certificates would be increased from Rs 5 million to Rs 7.5 million.
He said out of a total Rs 1,150 billion Federal PSDP, the government allocated Rs 652.949 billion for federal ministries, Rs 212.050 billion for corporations, including National Highway Authority (Rs 157.500 billion) and PEPCO (Rs54.440 billion), and Rs 200 billion for VGF for Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects.
The government, he said, also proposed an allocation of Rs 107.500 billion for the Water Resources Division, Rs 5.450 billion for the Aviation Division, Rs 1,114 million for the Board of Investment, Rs 90.120 billion for the Cabinet Division, Rs 4.050 billion for Climate the Change Division, Rs1.100 billion for the Commerce Division, Rs 360.390 million for the Communication Division (other than NHA), Rs 3.400 billion for the Defence Division, and Rs 2 billion for the Defence Production Division.