ISLAMABAD: Although the federal budget for the financial year 2016-17 saw merger of two ad-hoc reliefs announced for the year 2013 and 2014 into basic salary of federal government employees, the major benefit of merging 50 per cent ad-hoc relief allowed by the PPP government was not merged.
The step saved government from a substantial burden as in case of merger of 50 per cent ad-hoc amount, the salary bill of the federal employees was bound to hit a new high relieving the salaried class.
The federal employees reacting to the government announcement said that they are still deprived of one of their basic right of full salary against services rendered by them. With ever increasing inflation and rise in prices of essential commodities, the merger of 50 per cent ad-hoc allowance could have provided the relief we are waiting for, said a non gazetted employee hoping that in next fiscal year 2017-18 which would also be the election year, all ad-hoc allowance may be merged into basic salary providing a substantial relief.