Equalizing salaries not possible in a year: Zadran

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Ministry of Finance (MoF) on Wednesday said that salaries of government servants would be gradually increased after revenues collections and ruled out the possibility of equalizing their pay in a year.

Finance Secretary Habibullah Zadran told this a gathering that marked the launch of “accountability to the nation’ process.”

“With revenue collections, the salaries will be increased gradually and equalizing their salaries within a year is not possible,” he said.

This comes after the Wolesi Jirga speaker had said that equalizing the salaries of government employees was the red line of the Lower House and the next year’s budget will not be approved until this demand was met.

According to Zadran, the last year budget was 500 billion afs in which 306 billion was allocated for general budget and 194.2b for development budget.

He said until the end of last year, 275.7 billion afs from the general budget or 90 percent was spent and 161.2 billion afs or 87 percent was spent from the development budget.

He said money borrowed from the IMF was interest free and shall be returned in 15 years period.

The finance secretary appeared in the ‘accountable to the nation’ process at a time when the Lower House has rejected the 2021 budget twice.

nh/ma

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