Study on new salary, retirement scheme for civil servants to take 8 months, says PM

The new proposed salary and retirement scheme for civil servants will need up to eight months of study before it can be brought to the Cabinet, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim says.
 
Anwar said a comprehensive study would be done, which would also cover the salaries of teachers, in the government’s efforts to raise the salaries of civil servants. 

"I will present (the findings of the study) to the Cabinet for approval, subject to an increase in the country’s revenues," he said at an event in Seremban yesterday. 
 
He said the country’s revenue projections were better than initially forecast as more people were coming forward to pay taxes.

Anwar said while the study is being completed, the government had announced a special appreciation aid to civil servants and retirees, which would be paid in two weeks.
 
"I could have announced it as RM1,000 but I do not want to increase our debts as the national debt is now too high… and that too after we cut a lot of allocations considered as wasteful," he said. 

The prime minister earlier announced that the government would be giving a special appreciation aid of RM300 to civil servants of Grade 56 and below and a similar aid of RM200 to retirees, which would benefit 1.3 million civil servants, including contract appointments, and over a million retirees.